Reborn Dragon
by Wingd knight
Summary: After the defeat of both Acnologia and Zeref, Natsu Dragneel has died. However as an old threat rises in a new world he has been tasked to take up the role of savior once more. SmarterNatsu, non-godlike(most of the time)Natsu, NatsuXHarem. I own nothing.
1. Prolong

Natsu 'Salamander' Dragneel the fire dragon slayer, also known as E.N.D. the strongest of the Etherious, foster son of the late Fire Dragon King Igneel and younger brother of the darkest mage of all time Zeref Dragneel … was dead.

He had just succeeded in his goal to defeat the dragon slayer turned dragon Acnologia along with his brother Zeref, both of which were seen as god level beings to the people of Earthland. Now as he drifted through the endless void that his life had become upon his death one thought stood out more than any other, 'Well this sucks, where the hell's the food! Damn it.'… Hey let it never be said that Natsu Dragneel was the smartest of the bunch.*

" **Natsu,"** a booming voice called from the darkness.

"Igneel?!" Natsu exclaimed as a red light began to shine within the void his world had become.

" **You are still needed my son, your time has yet to come to join me"**

"…Dad..?"

" **Acnologia was able to send a piece of himself through the void before his death, he still lives and is regaining his power in a new world."**

"What does that have to do with me? If he's weak now someone else can beat his now yeah? Besides I'm dead…" Natsu glumly added the last part.

 **"** **Do not underestimate the power of a former Dragon King Natsu, or the power of those who have survived death before."**

"Eh?" What was that supposed to mean? Natsu knew about Igneel once holding the title of King before Acnologia dethroned him and began the mass killing of the dragons, but who survived death? How _could_ someone survive death? It was DEATH!

"Hello, Natsu" a familiar voice spoke from beside him.

"Master Mavis! What are you are you doing here?"

The young looking ghost giggled into her hand, "Weren't you paying attention Natsu? Your father did say those who survived death would help you, and as a spirit who wandered Earthland after the death of my body, I count as one of them." Mavis told him smiling kindly.

"That's great! With you and Igneel here this will be easy! ... Wait, 'one of them'? Who's the other?"

"That would be me, little brother. Being immortal counts does it not?"

Upon hearing that voice, one of the voices that he had hoped to never hear again, Natsu spun around to face its source. "Zeref" he growled. "What are you doing here?"

"You gave me what I wanted, little brother, you managed to kill me for good and even if I didn't get to bring the rest of Earthland with me into the void I am still grateful. So as my way of saying thanks, I will be helping Mavis and Igneel with sending you on your way to finish off Acnologia."

"Why should I trust you? You've been trying to kill my nakama (sp?) for years!"

"Be that as it may, I have never lied to you. Nor have I ever expressed a desire for anything but death, even the creation of the Etherious was for the purpose of killing me. Now that I have finally been granted my wish, by you no less, what possible ulterior motive could I have in helping you achieve your own goal?"

This gave Natsu pause. As much as he hated to admit it, what his brother said was true, Zeref may have kept things from him, such as being his brother in the first place, but he never outright lied. Looking his brother in the eyes, Natsu begrudgingly nodded, "fine," he said, "what are we going to do? Can you guys rip open a door or something? Like how we went to Edolas?"

It was Igneel that answered, **"No. Unlike Earthland and Edolas, your dimension and the one Acnologia escaped to are not connected. In fact we are completely unable to send your body to the new world."** He explained. **"But we c** ** _an_** **send a part of you which will be more than enough."**

"What are you sending? I can't live with just my brain." Natsu asked.

"Your soul," Mavis answered him, "Your soul is who you are, connected to your physical body through your brain for thought and heart for strength. By sending your soul to this new world it will naturally seek out a vessel which will become your new body."

"So, what? I'll be taking over someone's corpse or something?"

This time it was Zeref who responded, "No, as a body grows it adapts to the soul that is bound to it, the soul of an artist will have better eyes for detail for instance, while the soul of a warrior will have more muscle. In order for you to have a body that fits you and your power you will need a body that fits your soul, and the easiest way to do that is to give you a new body. A blank slate as it were."

"Meaning..?"

"You will be reborn in the most literal sense. A baby, newly conceived and with no soul yet developed will be your new vessel." Zeref explained.

"WHAT? But, but, what about Acnologia? Does he have to do this to?"

 **"No, by sending part of his power along with his soul, something he was only able to do just before his death, he would have recreated his body. Though it will be weak due to the transfer of worlds, he will regain his former might soon enough."** Igneel spoke.

"How long will I have then?" Natsu asked the three gathered beings.

"Twenty years give or take I would imagine" Mavis replied "By then you will be in your late teens and have full access to the power you held in your first life maybe even more."

"Our last fight destroyed a whole kingdom… everything was leveled that didn't have high levels of magic to defend it or them and even they didn't come out unscathed." It was true, even though Natsu had tried to contain the damage, he didn't have the time to fine tune his magic to only burn his target, not at the level of the spells he was throwing around, and Acnologia just didn't care. Ironically it was Zeref, the one hailed as the bringer of death that did the least damage, mostly due to his spells effecting the body directly instead of creating things that in turn did the hurting such as Natsu with his fire, and not because he was what one would call 'weaker' than the other two.

"If that is your concern then I suggest that you either get better at controlling your magic or find a large area of unpopulated land when you inevitably fight." Zeref told him, "Which brings us to one more thing before we send you on your way. We have some gifts for you."

"What?" Natsu asked, "I thought you said you were only sending my soul?"

"We are. Luckily magic, as a spiritual thing itself, is connected to the soul and with you being an ability type and not a holder, you will have full access to your magic… along with the magic we will now give you."

"Ohhh, no. No way am I learning Death Magic or how to make freaking demons."

"I know much more than just Death Magic little brother. In fact the magic I will be giving to you is actually different Fire Magics that I learned throughout my life." Zeref assured Natsu.

Placing his hand on Natsu's head, Zeref closed his eyes and reached out to touch Natsu's mind and magic with his own, implanting all he knew about the many forms of fire magic. Flames that healed, that burned cold, that threw shadow instead of light, and many more.

As Zeref finished and stepped back, Natsu himself was amazed. He never really branched out his magic like this, he never got the chance. Sure he knew how to make his fire act like a solid and not burn, like when he climbed out of the gorge when fighting Eregor, but between Tenrue (sp?) island, the Grand Magic games, Tartarus, and everything else that happened before his final battle, he never really had the chance to do anything but get stronger and improve his Slayer magic. Now though, he could almost feel how much use these spells could be, the diversity of his chosen magic had escaped him until that moment, and it was incredible.

Next up was Mavis, who placed her hand over his heart, "I never learned fire magic beyond the basics," she said to him, "and I also never truly taught anyone my own, so I will be giving you my magic, so that it may yet live on." As she said this Natsu once more felt new knowledge enter his mind, and to his shock he found himself knowing the complete magic formula for all three of the Grand Fairy Spells, spells which, other than Master Makrove, no one could even preform even _one_ of without the first master's help. Even Lacsus when he tried at the battle of Fairy Tail would only have been able to do minor damage to the contestants had he truly seen them as his enemies when preforming Fairy Law.

As Natsu recovered from his shock, his father spoke once more, **"Unfortunately, I have no magic to give you, my son. You have long sense surpassed me in the art of Fire Dragon Slayer magic, so instead I will connect you more deeply with our element of Fire and officially claim you as my son and heir, making you the last Dragon Prince, and assuring that upon the defeat of Acnologia you will bear the title of King."** As he said this, the light from where his voice came glowed brighter for several seconds, and Natsu briefly felt his body heat up and his senses flair to new heights before he adjusted to the new feelings.

Looking down at his hands, Natsu curled them into fists before looking up at the three in front of him, "Thank you" he said "I promise, I won't let these go to waste."

Zeref and Mavis smiled at the Slayer and nodded as Igneels voice rang out one last time, " **I know you won't Natsu. Good luck, my son."**

And with those last words the world around Natsu once more faded into darkness. It was time to start his journey.

 **Ok I got some decent feedback and a lot of views in a very short time, so I will be continuing this story starting with this completed prolong, the partial one will be deleted soon enough. I read all reviews and PMs but that does not mean I will listen to them, so flamers may feed Natsu if they wish and those who have ideas for this story are welcome to share, I might even use them and I will do my best to answer any questions, not all of them mind you no spoilers, but I am happy to clear up any confusion that anyone may have. R &R people. See you later!**


	2. Chapter 1

Natsu Xiao Long, also known as Natsu the Fire Dragon, is the second child of Taiyang Xiao Long and his only son. After his meeting with his father Igneel and the two survivors of death Natsu's next sight was once more empty darkness, the difference being that this time instead of a never ending void he was in a small cramped space with what felt like another person pushing at his feet. It was only after several months of hazy consciousness that something finally happened. The pressure that he had grown accustomed to shifted and began to leave, and shortly after he followed.

What came next was a series of bleary images and odd sounds which he later learned was his early childhood. It seemed that just because he retained his memories it did not mean that his new body's mind could still function on the same level as an adult brain. That was 17 years ago.

Now 17 in body if not in soul, Natsu had full access to all the power he had accumulated in his past life just like Mavis had said. On top of this he had also invested time to follow the advice of his brother and gained control over his power that far exceeded the level he once had. Now all but his most powerful and devastating attacks could be tuned to only burn what he wants without any loss of power or speed. This along with the new forms of fire that he could now use in conjunction with the three Fairy Spells would have made him able to take on all ten Wizard Saints back in Earthland _without_ the use of Dragon Force, which was good, because he had no doubt that after their last battle Acnologia would also have done as much as he could to improve.

Of course not everything could be perfect in his new life. Not only did he have an AWOL mother, but a dead stepmother and an overprotective father as well, and that's not even taking into account the results of Igneel's parting gift. When learning his primary magic from his foster father he was taught how to use the ancient magic 'The Flames of Emotion', allowing him to fight at higher levels then he normally could by turning the emotions associated with fire into raw power. In the past he mostly used rage to power his magic as it was the primary thing he felt when fighting an enemy- which was also the reason he could beat people stronger than Erza but never her, he never hated her or felt anything greater than a miner anger towered her. However now that he was more deeply connected with the element, he felt _all_ the emotions bound to fire to a much greater extent all the time, Anger, Rage, Passion, Will of Life, Excitement, and the thing that was the big problem, Lust.

As a Dragon Slayer, Natsu was no stranger to such a thing- just ask Lissanna, Lucy, or again Erza (along with maybe a dozen other girls not in the guild such as Princess Hisui and Millianna) - but while in the past he would only succumb to the feeling every once in a while outside of the dragon mating season he now had to near constantly keep himself on a tight leash, least he end up bedding every girl he found even slightly attractive. Which included his two sisters.

Yang Xiao Long was his elder twin sister by just shy of five minutes. She had light purple eyes, long blond hair that had a well-kept if slightly messy appearance which along with her larger than average chest made her the definition of 'busty blond' if not as much as Lucy. Her outfit -which would be seen as odd outside the Hunstman or Wizard population- consisted of a closed short sleeved brown jacket with puffy shoulders, a matching hip cape yellow tube top, orange socks with a light purple ribbon wrapped around her left leg orange neck warmer black fingerless gloves and booty shorts and finished off with brown short heeled thigh high boots. On her wrists she wore her weapon, standard issue shotgun gauntlets in their compressed form.

His other sister was Ruby Rose, a girl two years his younger with black hair with red tips, her eyes an uncommon silver color and again an above average chest, for her age at least. She wore what could be seen as a Gothic Lolita type of getup, a black skirt with red frills a long sleeved black turtle neck again with red frills -though this time at the wrists- a black corset with red strings worn over her shirt, a dull silver magnetic belt and finally her signature red hooded cape held on by two silver crosses. Her self-built custom weapon was held on to the back of her belt under her cape in its compact form. When unfolded it had two other forms, a type of sniper rifle and a large scythe which could still use the rifle form's rounds if she so chose.

Over the years the three of them had grown close as siblings and luckily they had no clue about his past life or the attraction he couldn't help but feel for them. While he himself did not understand the taboo of incest- mostly due to him growing up in Fairy Tail where everyone called each other family even when dating and being a Dragon Slayer which made him more 'beast like' for lack of a better term- he knew that almost all frown upon it and that his sisters would almost certainly never even consider the possibility of sleeping with him. So instead he practiced his self-control while at home and occasionally went out to Junior's club to 'relieve' some of the twin bouncer's 'tension'.

Now though they were on their way to Beacon Academy, one of the premier Hunter schools in all of Remnant at the same time no less. Usually he and Yang would have ended up going two years before their younger sister but do to her catching the attention of the headmaster by helping out during a Dust robbery she was able to be pushed up two years to attend the same year as them.

Currently they were in a Dust Plane, a kind of vehicle that sailed through the air. Normally Natsu would be spending the whole ride nearly puking his guts out, luckily this world had something his old one didn't, Motion Sickness Pills. So now instead of joining the poor blond guy in running for the trash cans he was looking out the window over the city of Vale.

While doing so he was able to see his reflection in the glass. Gone were his once black eyes instead being a red the same color as his new mother's, and while his hair was still a salmon pink color it was only because he bleached his natural black hair and dyed it, if he didn't he would look almost exactly like his brother Zeref sans the eyes. His outfit consisted of a back sleeveless skintight shirt with gold edges at the shoulders and two jagged red lines running from the top to the bottom black semi baggy pants knee high black heelless boots and a brown belt with several large pouches attached, a dark brown cuff bracelet of his right wrist and all topped off with a scarf identical to the one Igneel gave him in his first life.

The pouches at his waist held several important things; one contained first aid supplies such as bandages and disinfectant along with his Motion Sickness Pills (just because he could use healing flames didn't mean he wanted everyone to know- he would be hounded by hospitals and the like), another contained emergency rations like protein bars, the third carried several Fire Dust crystals either for when he had a desire for his favorite food or if he ever needed the boost. The last one contained his scroll along with whatever book he was currently reading… what? He couldn't spend _all_ his time fighting, so he picked up a new hobby, sue him.

However despite all the use the items he carried had, it was the band on his wrist that was the most important thing in his possession. After reviewing the magics that Mavis and Zeref gave to him he found that his brother gave him a few more things than just fire magic. These things consisted of basic meditation knowledge and tips on how to start, both basic and advanced sensory magics that would tell him not only how strong someone was but would also help him track people he knew outside of the range of his heightened senses, and finally all of his knowhow on magic sealing. While Zeref kept his promise on not teaching him how to create demons, he did teach him an aspect that he used in their development and storage. That was what his bracelet was- a high level magic seal that dampened his power to a small fraction of what it truly was. When wearing it, due to his magic now running on his Aura instead of Eathernano, he appeared to have only above average reserves to all methods of scanning so he never had to deal with someone finding out he had enough power to burn the whole _kingdom_ of Vale, not just the capital city, to the ground if he so chose.

Natsu was broken out of his musings by the plane's doors opening, it seemed they had arrived at the school while he was lost in thought.

Stepping out of the ship with his sisters he heard their sounds of amazement as they first laid eyes on the school. While he himself didn't feel the same awe as the other two because of his past travels he did admit to being impressed. Beacon, with its high towers and large gardens was like something out of a story book.

And then Ruby saw the other students.

"Oh wow look that kid has a collapsible staff, ooo and he has a fire sword!" Ruby gushed looking adoringly at the many kinds of instruments of death that were being carried around.

"Easy there little sister," Yang told her as she pulled her back from almost chasing one of the passersby. "There just weapons you know. Why don't you gush over your own, aren't you happy with it?"

Unfolding her weapon from its compressed form Ruby quickly answered her eldest sibling, "Of course I'm happy with Crescent Rose. I just like seeing new ones. It's like meeting new people… only better."

Here Natsu cut in, "A weapon without a wielder is nothing more than a hunk of metal, remember that Rubes. I know you don't do so well around people, but you should at least try, if for no other reason than to give Yang and I some peace of mind."

"Well, why can't I just hang out with you guys?" She asked them.

"Actually… ourfriendsjustgotheregottagocatchupbye!" Yang called out as she grabbed onto her brother's arm and dragged him along with a group of people that they knew from Signal Academy.

Natsu quickly pulled his arm out of Yang's grip and growled quietly at her, "what was that for Yang?" he asked her, "We saw these guys _yesterday_ for crying out loud. Why'd you make us ditch Ruby for?"

"If we stayed with her now, she would never branch out to meet new people. Don't worry we'll meet up with her at the auditorium. Trust me this is for her own good." Yang told her brother before turning to one of the people they were walking with and started listening to whatever he was talking about, seeing the matter as closed.

Natsu winced as he heard an explosion go off behind them, sensing Ruby's presence at its center 'I hope you're right Yang, I may not be too worried about you, but if I die when fighting Acnologia, Ruby is going to need all the support she can get.' Sighing, the Dragon Slayer pushed such thoughts to the back of his mind as he and his twin entered the auditorium, there would be time for such thoughts later, right now he would live his life to the fullest and make sure that such an event doesn't come to pass.

* * *

 **Don't expect all new chapters to come out this quickly, right now I just have some time to kill between projects.**

 **Not much happened this chapter, but it should set up a nice bases for Natsu and clean up some questions about his magic and such. Also I'm sure you've noticed how I said he has a very large amount of lust now, if anyone has any requests for how he should deal with this problem just leave a review with your pick, One Night Stands, friends with benefits, an insatiable girlfriend, or a harem, take your pick on how and who. Remember, I read all reviews but I don't listen to everything you say (flamers) or use all suggestions, but I will take them into account.**

 **Until next time R &R people. I'm out.**


	3. Chapter 2

Waiting in the auditorium for Ruby, Natsu was starting to feel uncomfortable. Due to the amount of time it took to both test into and prepare for Beacon, he hadn't gotten the chance to sneak off into the woods or to Junior's bar in several weeks, and now his dragon instincts to fight, along with his fire aspect enhanced lust was starting to get to him. _Damn it, hurry up and get this over with already. I'm losing it!_

His inner complaining was broken when his older sister called out to his little one, "Ruby over here! We saved you a spot!"

Looking toward the door, Natsu saw Ruby saying goodbye to the blond boy he remembered from the airship, ' _He better not be thinking about making a move on her…'_ Interestingly enough, it was not his lust that influenced this thought, but his inner dragon along with his instincts as an older brother. Dragons may not be monogamous, but they were **very** protective of what they saw as theirs.

"So, how's your first day going little sister?" Yang asked Ruby as she came up to them.

"You mean sense you ditched me and I exploded?"

"Yeash, meltdown already?" Yang asked.

"She means it literally Yang." Natsu told her.

"How'd you know that?" Ruby asked him.

"Heard it while we walking away." He stated matter of factly.

"AND YOU DIDN'T COME TO HELP ME!?"

"Oh please. You have an active Aura and it wasn't that big of an explosion, it's not like you would have been hurt."

"That's not the point!" She yelled.

Natsu just shrugged and was about to retort when he was interrupted, "You!" a bossy voice exclaimed. Turning to face its source Natsu saw a short, petite girl with white hair, wearing a white dress, white polo jacket and light blue eyes. She was defiantly very pretty, but he'd seen better. "You're lucky we weren't blown off the side of the cliff" the girl angrily told Ruby.

"Oh my god you really exploded." Yang said in a disbelieving voice.

"Didn't I just say that?" Natsu asked. He was ignored.

"It was an accident!" Ruby told her sister before turning to the other girl again, "It was an accident!" The girl thrust a pamphlet into her face in response. "What's this?" Ruby asked.

"The Schnee Dust Company is not responsible for any injuries or damages sustained while operating a Schnee Dust Company product. While not mandatory the Company encourages their customers to read and familiarize themselves with this easy to remember packet for standard Dust use and safety in the field." The girl said, her voice seeming to become squeakier for the second half.

"Huh?"

"You really want to start making it up to me?" The white haired girl asked.

"Absolutely." Ruby told her.

"Read this and never talk to me again." The girl said shoving the pamphlet into Ruby's hands in a huff.

Here Yang spoke up, "Look, it looks like you guys just got off on the wrong foot." She told the girl "Why don't you two start over and try to be friends OK?"

"Yeah!" Ruby said, "Great idea sis. Hello Weiss, I'm Ruby. Want to hang out? We can go shopping for school supplies." She said cheerfully.

"Yeah," the now named Weiss said in an obviously sarcastic tone, "and we can do our nails and talk about cute boys, like pinky here." She said pointing her thumb at Natsu.

The boy in question raised his eyebrow, "Wow, trying to get a girl to talk about her brother like that? Kinky." He was only partially joking.

"Wait- brother!? No, I didn't mean it like that!" Weiss denied embarrassed, she didn't know the two were related. She was just…

"He-hem," a new voice came over the speakers. Headmaster Ozpin had taken the stage. "I'll, keep this brief." He said, "You have traveled here today in search of knowledge, to hone your craft and acquire new skills, and when you finish you plan to dedicate your lives to the protection of the people. But as I look among you today, I see nothing but wasted energy. Needing purpose and direction." Here Natsu frowned, he knew exactly what his direction was- kill Acnologia and live a full life with plenty of fighting, adventures, and sex. Simple. Still, Ozpin continued on, "You assume knowledge will free you of this, but you will find that knowledge can only carry you so far. It is up to you to take the first step." With that the man's speech was over and he walked off the stage, his second in command Professor Goodwitch taking his place.

"You will all gather in the ballroom tonight" she told them. _Wait, what?_ "Tomorrow your initiation begins, be ready. You are dismissed."

* * *

"It's like a biiiig slumber party!" Yang exclaimed as she flopped down onto her sleep mat beside her little sister and brother.

"I don't think dad would approve of all the boys though." Ruby told her as she wrote in a small notebook in front of her.

"I know I do" Yang purred starring at the teens without a shirt and flexing their muscles while looking in her direction.

"They try anything and I'm burning their nuts off" Natsu growled out. Just because he could understand the attraction the other boys felt toward his twin didn't mean he would let them act on it. "What'chya writing anyway Ruby?" He asked his little sister.

"Just a letter to the guys back at Signal" she told them.

"Aww, that's sooo cuuute!" Yang teased her earning a pillow to the face.

"Shut up," Ruby whined, "I didn't get to bring all my friends to school with me. It's weird not knowing anyone here."

"What about that Jaune guy you told us about?" Natsu asked her. "He seems like a nice guy." _Plus, I doubt he'll try to get into a relationship with you. If he did, I'd need a place to hide a body._ These thoughts came both from his increased lust, and being an older brother.

"I'm pretty sure Weiss counts as a negative friend. Back to zero." Ruby said depressingly.

"There's no such thing as a negative friend. You just made one friend and one enemy!" This earned Yang a dog shaped pillow to the face.

"She's right you know," Natus told Ruby, "you shouldn't let the hate someone shows you overshadow the love of everyone else."

Ruby looked at her brother and frowned, "What is it with you lately? You sound like a philosopher." Her brother was almost never like this, usually he was a bit more like Yang, so whenever he got like he was now she always thought something was wrong.

She wasn't really wrong about that either. It had been nearly two weeks sense Natsu had fought or had sex and his inner dragon, his burning _soul_ was calling for him to do one or the other. Natus loved Igneel, he really did, but damn if him claiming him as his heir wasn't a pain to deal with, whenever he went too long without satisfying his urges he had to really tie himself down to the point he started acting strangely or else he would do something he'd regret. ' _Maybe after initiation I can sneak into Vail to visit the Malachite twins_ (sorry I can't remember their names) _?'_ "Nothing's wrong Ruby, just a little anxious about tomorrow."

"If you say so…" Ruby said, doubt clear in her voice. Before she could say anything more however, she caught sight of something over his shoulder, "That girl…"

"Who?" Yang asked.

"The one in the bow, she's the one who told off Weiss after I blew up."

Looking over his shoulder, Natsu saw the girl his sister was talking about. She had wavy black hair topped with a bow that looked like cat ears, yellow eyes, skin that was slightly pale and wearing only a short black yukata as her pajamas, she was one of the most beautiful women he had seen in his new life, even surpassing several girls from his old one. ' _Why, oh why, does this have to happen now? Why not tomorrow when I'm not two steps away from trying to start a freaking orgy in the middle of the ballroom?'_ Not only were both of his sisters there, but now _another_ beautiful girl, along with all the other women packed into the room, it was a good thing Natsu had gained as much control as he had or he would probably be acting like a dog in heat at that point.

"Well let's go talk to her then!" Yang cheered. ' _Noooo, let's not.'_ Natsu thought.

Before he or Ruby could voice any form of objection, Yang had grabbed their arms and began to drag them over to the dark haired beauty. "Helloooo there! I believe you two may know each other?" She cheerfully proclaimed, shoving Ruby forward slightly.

"Aren't you that girl that exploded?" She asked.

"Yeah, that's me." Ruby told the girl. "But you can just call me Crater… actually you can just call me Ruby."

"Okay…"

"What are you doing?" Yang asked her sister.

"I don't know, help me."

"Sooo, what's your name?" Yang asked the girl.

"*Sigh* Blake." She told them.

"I like your bow" Yang tried, "it goes great with your… Pajamas!"

"Riiight…" Blake did not seemed amused.

His sisters looked at eachother, looking slightly uncomfortable. "Er, nice night don't you think?" It seemed Yang didn't know when to give up. _You'd think that trying to talk to me when I'm reading would make her learn, but no. *Sigh*… Wait a minute, what's that smell… is that? Cat?_ Looking at Blake again Natsu noticed her bow twitch slightly, most likely out of irritation. _Ohhh, she's a cat Faunus, that explains it._

"Yes," Blake said oblivious to the fact that her secret had just been discovered, "It's lovely. Almost as lovely as this book." She told them while they just continued to stare, "Which I will continue to read," Still no movement on his sister's part, "As soon as you leave." _Take the hint Yang._

It seemed that someone was listening to him because now Yang said, "Yeah, this girls a lost cause."

But it seemed Ruby didn't get the memo, "What's it about?"

"Huh?"

"Your book, what's it about?"

"Oh, it's about a man with two souls, fighting for control of his body." Blake explained. _Wait, does this world have 'Dr. Jackle and Mister Hyde?'_

"Well that's… nice." Yang spoke.

"I love books," Ruby told Blake, "Yang used to read to me all the time, and Natsu would make up the best stories, and there some of the reasons I want to be a huntress."

"And why's that?" Blake asked, "Hoping you'll live happily ever after?"

"I'm hoping we all will," Ruby told her, " When I was little I wanted to be just like the people in those stories, someone who fought for what was right, and protected those who couldn't protect themselves."

"That's very ambitious for a child." Blake told her, "Unfortunately real life is not a Fairy Tale…" _Says who?_ Natsu thought, ' _I'm a reborn Dragon Slayer, demon, Dragon Prince from a different dimension, was part of a group CALLED Fairy Tail, controls fire like it's part of my body and have been tasked with killing an evil Dragon King of Apocalypse. If that doesn't sound like a freakin' Fairy Tale then I don't know what does._ Granted no one other than him knew this at the time, but still.

"Well that's why we're here," Ruby continued on, "to make it better." _Well said Rubes._

"Aww, I'm so proud of my baby sister!" Yang exclaimed picking Ruby up.

"Yang! Cut it out!" And now the teasing hug had turned into a small brawl complete with dust cloud.

Seeing his sisters occupied, Natsu stepped forward and kneeled in front of Blake, "You know, you shouldn't hide who you are" he told her, causing he eyes to widen in fear, "All it will lead to pain later on."

"I'll… keep that in mind. But how did you know?"

"Just because I'm not a Faunus doesn't mean I don't have a good nose. You can try to hide it, but cats have a very distinct scent to those who know it, and I grew up nursing injured ones back to health." He couldn't help it, after growing up with Happy, it was weird not having a cat in his new life.

Before Blake could reply to that, a new voice broke up the sister's fight. "Would you knock it off? Some of us are trying to sleep!" Then she spotted Ruby.

""Oh no not you again!"" Both she and Ruby shouted in tandem. It seemed Weiss Schnee didn't like loud noises.

"Hey, what's your problem?" Yang asked the white haired girl angrily, "She said she was sorry!"

"She's a hazard to my health!" Weiss rebutted.

Ruby quickly shushed them, "Guys she's right, people are trying to sleep."

"Oh, so NOW your on my side?"

"I was always on your side!"

Natsu had a feeling this wouldn't end well if allowed to continue, so he quickly swiped his hand through the flames of the candle stick that sat beside Blake. With the last source of light in the room gone, the girls stopped talking, and with a huff returned to their own mats, stepping on others the whole way.

* * *

 **Right, last chapter before the action starts. Now to answer the question about the pairing: to start Natsu will have a few one night stands before he gets with Blake and later may develop a harem which would include Yang, but not Ruby- who will be paired with Weiss end of discussion on that, don't like that pairing? Then why do you read RWBY fanfics? Its the most popular one.**

 **Ideas, praise, and everything else is appreciated. R &R and see you next time.**

 **P.S. More reviews, faster updates.**


	4. Chapter 3

Natsu stood with his twin waiting for Ruby to finish getting her supplies for initiation when he overheard the conversation of two other first year students.

"We should come up with a signal, a secret signal so we can find each other in the forest. Can you imitate a sloth?" A rather energetic girl with orange hair, bright blue eyes and wearing a white short mid sleeved shirt with black shoulders and collar with a heat shaped cutout just above her cleavage, a pair of pink gloves and skirt, white boots and a chest harness made of metal asked a rather tired looking boy with long black hair with a magenta strip held in a ponytail, pink eyes and wearing a high collared green and black tailcoat with pink cuffs, white pants, and black flat shoes.

The question made Natsu raise an eyebrow. He had seen sloths both in his first life and his current one, and while they were what one might call 'cute' they weren't very loud so using one as a signal wouldn't make much sense unless you were calling someone with dog Faunus levels of hearing (A, N. seriously go on youtube and look up 'what does a sloth say' by AnimalistToo the things are adorable).

"Nora?" the green wearing boy asked.

"Yes Ren?" The newly named Nora asked in turn.

"I don't think sloths make a lot of noise." He told the girl with a small grin as he put away his weapons- dual bladed pistils colored an emerald green.

Nora seemed to have a revelation, "That's why it's perfect! No one will suspect we're working together."

"Come on Nora," Ren said closing his rocket propelled locker, "let's go."

"But not together, together." Nora giggled following her friend.

"Wonder what those two are so worked up about." Ruby said.

"Oh who knows?" Yang asked rhetorically. _I do._ "So you seem awfully chipper this morning."

"Hmm, yep no more awkward small talk or getting to know you stuff. Today I get to let my sweetheart do the talking." Ruby said as she took out the last thing in her locker, her weapon Crescent Rose and started cooing over it like it was a baby.

 _Geez, we really got to get Ruby over her weapon fetish, maybe get her a boyfriend… or girlfriend._ Natsu thought, he could never really get a read on his sister in that sense. He never smelled any arousal coming off of her, nor did he feel any change in the fire aspect of her soul that represented her lust and sexual attraction. Heck for all he knew she was asexual.

"You know that initiation is not just you right?" Natsu asked her. "In order to grow you have to meet and work with others, no one is an island."

"Augh, you sound like dad!" Ruby complained as she threw Crescent Rose back into her locker. "First of all, what does meeting new people have to do with fighting? And second, I don't need people to help me grow up- I drink milk." She stated, as if that settled that.

"That's not what I meant when I said you had to grow Ruby-" Before he could continue Yang cut in. "But what about when we form teams?"

"I don't know," Ruby didn't sound so sure now "I'll just be on one of your guys' teams I guess."

"Um, maybe you could try being on someone else's team…" Yang asked nervously as she fixed her hair.

"My dearest sister Yang, are you implying that you do not wish to be on the same team as me?"

"That's not what she meant Rubes," Natsu cut in, "but maybe it _would_ be better for you if you teamed up with someone else, it would help you break out of your shell."

"Wha-! I don't need to break out of my shell!" She yelled defensively. "That's absolutely-"

"Ridicules!" _Huh, nice timing Jaune._ Walking past them was Jaune Arc, saying something about his locker placement.

"I think that's our cue to end this discussion and get going." Natsu tried.

"Ohh no, don't think this is over!" Ruby tried to stop him but he already slipped away, leaving Yang to deal with Ruby's pint sized fury.

However before he could make it outside he ran into another duo of girls, both of which he recognized.

One was the heiress he met the other day Weiss Schnee, the other was Pyrrha Nikos a girl with red hair and green eyes, wearing a gold crown on her forehead, a wide gold choker on her neck, a brown and gold armored corset that showed a fair amount of her considerable cleavage, mid-thigh high armored boots with two inches of pump heel, a deep brown skirt with a thick red cloth rapped around it and held in place by a thin brown belt, and finished off with long brown gloves that almost went to her shoulders the left one topped with a metal bracer on her forearm.

He had met her at an inter kingdom tournament for lower combat academies, which while not as famous or watched as the Vytal Festival and other upper academy tournaments, or even the Minstral reginal, it still attracted its fair share of fighters. The past two years he had convinced his Uncle Qrow to take him to participate without his father's – or his sister's- knowledge.

It was there that he met Pyrrha as an opponent, and became the only one to beat the 'Goddess of Victory' which is what earned him the title 'Fire Dragon' both for his surname and his cough* Semblance*.

They also might have gotten a bit drunk this last year and slept together… all night… every night… for the whole week of the tournament… but only this past year, not the first one, the first one they spent most of their time together fighting and talking… while they continued to fight eachother.

While nowhere near Erza's level in combat, she was more than skilled enough to hold her own against his sealed power for long periods of time, though if he ever _un_ sealed his power she wouldn't last a second. Still it was very impressive that she was able to do as well as she did, it was only thanks to his experience with fighting strong and skilled opponents that let him win their matches. The people she fought in Minstral could never give her much of a challenge so fighting Natsu was very different for her. In terms of skill, Natsu beat her out, in terms of Aura- while he was sealed- she beat him out, so they were an evenish match.

From the looks of it Weiss was trying to convince Pryrrha to be on a team with her without sounding despite. _And now she's wearing the evil face of doom_ _tm_ _… and here comes Jaune… Okay time to step in. Why is he so focused on Weiss anyway?_

"Hey Pyrrha! I didn't know you were coming to Beacon too!" He called out to his friend.

"Natsu it's good to see you." She told him, pulling him into a hug which he happily returned. _Maybe I won't need to go into Vale after all._

"Excuse me, who do you think you are talking to her like that? Don't you know who she is?" Weiss rudely asked.

"Sure, this is Pyrrha Nikos a beautiful, kickass redhead who's the only one who can match me in a fight."

"Wait match you?! That means you're the Fire Dragon, the only one to ever beat Pyrrha in a tournament." Weiss said shocked. "My apologies, I didn't recognize you. I'm Weiss Schnee, an honor to make your acquaintance." She told him with a small curtsy.

"Uh, we met yesterday remember? You bitched out my little sister."

Weiss had the decency to look embarrassed, "Yes, well that was just a misunderstanding I assure you."

"Right, well I think it's time to get to the cliff. You coming Pyrrha?"

"Sure." She said, falling in step beside him, "So, your little sisters here? I thought you said she had another two years before she could attend."

"Yeah apparently she caught the eye of the headmaster after beating some underpaid guys to a pulp and trying to shoot down an aircraft full of explosives, so here she is."

"… I feel like you're leaving out some key parts of this story…"

* * *

"For years you have trained to become warriors, and today your abilities will be evaluated in the Emerald Forest." Ozpin told the gathered students on the Cliffside, each one standing on their own metal square with the Beacon crest on it.

Here Glinda picked up, "I'm sure many of you have heard rumors of teams. Allow me to put an end to your confusion. Each of you will be given teammates, today." Here Natsu heard Ruby moan a little.

Again Ozpin took over, "These teammates will be with you for the rest of your time here at Beacon, so it is your best interest to team up with someone with whom you can work well. That being said the first person you make eye contact with upon landing will be your partner for the next for years" _I think I just heard Ruby's world shatter._

"See? I told you." Nora spoke to Ren.

"After you've partnered up," Ozpin continued, "make your way to the northern end of the forest. You will meet opposition along the way, do not hesitate to destroy everything in your path or you will die."

Jaune gulped.

"You will be monitored and graded for the deration of your initiation, but our instructors will not intervene" _Meaning if you're about to die, don't expect anyone to save you._ "You will find an abandoned temple at the end of the path, containing several relics. Each pair must choose one and return to the top of the cliff. You will guard that item, as well as your standing, and we will grade you appropriately. Are there any questions?"

"Yeah um sir?" Jaune tried to ask.

"Good. Now take your positions." Everyone but Jaune did so, still trying to ask his question.

Weiss was launched into the forest.

"So this, landing strategy thing. How is that going to work exactly? Are you dropping us off or something?" Two more people were now airborn.

"No. You will be falling." Another student was sent through the air.

"Huh, I see. So did you hand out parachutes for us?" Nora was next.

"No you will be using your own landing strategy." Another two gone.

"Uh huh, yeah." There went Yang and Ruby, Natsu and Jaune being the last ones on the cliff.

"So what exactly is a landing stateggggaaayyyayyayayy!?" Jaune called even as he was launched off the cliff.

Here Natsu decided to speak up, "I get the feeling he's not used to long drops."

"Indeed."

Laughing softly at the headmasters nonchalance, Natsu was sent into the air following the rest of the students.

* * *

 **Right I know I said the fighting would start this chapter, but I'm trying to make this a one chapter one episode kind of this, at least for now.**

 **Anyway yeah, Natsu knows Pyrrha and can beat her in a fight if only just. And they slept together. Before anyone asks yes she will be in the harem (sorry Jaune) but for now she will just be a friend with benefits. Like I said, Natsu will be getting with Blake first, then Pyrrha.**

 **My spring break just started so I may be getting in some more chapters this week if nothing unexpected comes up.**

 **Remember more Reviews the more effort I put into updating faster.**

 **Wingd Knight out.**


	5. Chapter 4

**Amazing what you can do on a Saturday with f*uck all to do. Here's the first chapter part of the Initiation arc, tell me what you think.**

* * *

Flying through the air at breakneck speeds, with no harness or vehicle around you to give you the illusion of total safety was something hard to describe. And now was not the time to try.

Ahead of him Natsu could see the different strategies that were being used to land safely in the forest. Ruby used her gun to slow herself before using its scythe form to flip over a branch. That Ren guy hooked his guns on a tree trunk and slid around it like a corkscrew. Pyrrha held her shield up and simply crashed through several trees to slow herself down. Yang used high powered concussion shots from her gauntlets to propel her farther into the forest before crashing through the upper branches of a tree. And Jaune flailed around screaming until Pyrrha threw her spear through his hoodie to stick him to a yet another tree. _How the hell are there any trees left here if this happens every year?_ Natsu thought before implementing his own strategy.

Unlike the other students who wanted to get as far into the forest as possible with the initial launch to avoid more combat and finish faster, Natsu wanted as many opportunities to fight as he could get. After half a month doing nothing he wanted to let off a little steam.

Pushing a concentrated beam of fire out from his feet he was able to create a form of thrusters giving him the ability of flight (Avatar the last Airbender: Aang vs Ozai). In his sealed state he could only do this for about ten minutes but that was more than enough. Repositioning his legs Natsu was able to turn his forward momentum into upward and finally downward momentum shooting him toward the ground, where he leveled out before gently touching down feet first. In all he had traveled about half as far as the other students in the air, and maybe a third as far as Yang.

"Now, where are the punching bags?" Natsu asked himself.

As if to answer him, the roar of a beowolf sounded to his left. Turning his head to the source of the noise, Natsu found himself faced with five large werewolf like beasts with black fur bone white spikes and red streaked masks. The five wolves were spread out along his left side, not surrounding him as there were none on his right, but a half circle of enemies would prove difficult for many fighters none the less. Too bad Natsu didn't fall under that category, nor did beowolves prove much of a threat to pretty much anyone who went through a lower combat academy without considerable numbers.

In other words, this would be more of a massacre than a fight.

"I guess you'll do for a warm up." Natsu said, punching his open palm. This seemed to set them off as all five charged forward at once. Leaning back to avoid the first one's claws, Natsu planted his hands firmly on the ground lifted himself up and swung his feet through the air clockwise while lighting them on fire. The effect was a wheel of fire that came off of his burning feet and struck the five Grim at chest level.

Usually an attack like that wouldn't be able to put down a monster, but these were young, without a single scar on their bodies and having weak armor, and his fire was more powerful than the norm. So instead of the beasts receiving fourth degree burns on their chests, half of their torsos where burned away, killing them instantly.

Flipping back to his feet, Natsu couldn't help but smirk a little as he looked at the Grim's dissolving bodies, "Or maybe not." _Guess with me being so close to the cliff, all the stronger Grim around would have been killed off before they could climb up to the school._

That was something he hadn't thought of, landing closer to the school would make him travel a longer distance to the temple, but most of that extra distance would be devoid of anything stronger than the five beowolves he had just killed. _Maybe I'll get lucky and run into an Ursa Major._

Pushing such thoughts away, Natsu closed his eyes and focused on his sensory magic. _Okay, no one's dead that's good. Looks like Ruby's with Weiss that will be something. Pyrrha seems to have partnered with Jaune, damn so much for that… aaand Yang is pissed off about something with Blake inbound for her position so they'll probably be a team… wait. There are only twenty four other students other than me, does that mean someone doesn't get a partner? SWEET, now I won't have to deal with coming up with excuses every time I want to go into Vale or find something to fight._ Natsu wasn't sure _why_ there was an odd number of students for something like this, but he suspected Ruby's admittance screwed up the headcount this year.

Opening his eyes, Natsu took off to where he sensed the other teams heading too, which he assumed was the temple at the north end. As he ran through the surprisingly thin foliage he made sure to keep his eyes and ears open. Turns out that sense Grim had no souls, they didn't have anything for his sensory magic to lock onto, seeing as they were designed to locate magic active or no. So while he could track any human or Faunus he met before, and could at least pick up on the ones he hadn't, Grim never so much as left a blip on his radar.

Despite his hopes, even after running enough to nearly catch up with the rest of the students, the only other Grim Natsu came across was an average sized Ursa which while far stronger than the beowolves from before, still went down with one flaming sucker punch to the face.

Just as he was about to give up on ever getting a halfway decent fight that day, another roar caught his attention. Stopping in his tracks, Natsu turned to face the approaching noise. It was only a moment later that the cause of the noise showed itself, three Ursa Majors.

"Now we're talking." Jumping to the side to avoid the first charge, Natsu settled into a fighting stance. As the second Ursa lunged toward him he ducked under its wide swipe and jumped into the air striking it with a flaming knee to the face, sending it back and cracking its mask slightly.

Landing back on the ground, he wasn't given the chance to settle back into his stance as another Ursa tried to tackle him to the ground, forcing him to backflip several feet back to gain some room.

Touching down, Natsu instantly jumped forward, slamming a fire coated fist into the top of its head slamming it into the ground. He never got the chance to finish the job however as he was once more forced to dodge out of the way of a speeding Grim. "Looks like I'm finally getting that fight I wanted."

Lunging forward once more, Natsu delivered two quick flaming jabs to the face of the Ursa he had kneed in the face, breaking off half of its mask and from the snapping sound that followed breaking its neck as well. As the dissolving corpse hit the ground, Natsu was already moving onto his next target.

Weaving through its swipes, he countered with an uppercut to the chin, his hands still lit aflame. The beast stumbled back, dazed but not down. Before he could follow through, the other Ursa blindsided him, tackling him to the ground and pinning him underneath its considerable mass.

Using his hands to keep the bear shaped Grim's jaw open and away from his own face, Natsu pulled his knees us to his chest and planted his feet into the Ursa's before throwing it off of him and onto its own back. Kicking back up to his feet Natsu didn't give the monster a chance to get up itself using a flame enhanced elbow drop to crush its chest and putting it down for good.

By that point the last Ursa was back on its feet the only evidence of Natsu's earlier strike being a patch of burned fur on its chin. This one was bigger than the other two, with far thicker armor and more marks marring its body than the other two combined. Something this size would give a typical third year student trouble. But again, Natsu was not an average student, he, like Pyrrha, was on par with the average fourth year, perhaps even better (Unless stated otherwise mentions of Natsu's abilities will refer to his sealed state).

Taking initiative Natsu sent a concentrated blast of fire from his hands and feet propelling him toward the Grim at breakneck speeds. Spinning out of the way of the beast's attempt to hit him out of the air he hit the beast with a roundhouse kick to the side of the neck sending it crashing into and through a tree. However it seemed that wasn't enough to keep the thing down as it rose to its feet looking more pissed off than hurt.

"Come on big guy, let's see what you've got." Natsu taunted making a 'bring it on' motion with his hands. He had been waiting two weeks for this and he wanted it to count.

The Ursa charged forward again this time trying to ram Natsu with the spikes on its back by tucking its head down, both protecting more of its vulnerable points and making its charge that much more deadly. Grabbing the two foremost spikes, Natsu dug his feet firmly into the ground and stopped the Urse in its tracks using his aura to reinforce his strength to surpass his already impressive limits. Neither side seemed to want to give way however and it became a power struggle to see which one would cave first, knowing that doing so would leave them vulnerable to their opponent's next attack.

Getting tired of the stalemate, Natsu twisted his arms, throwing the bear onto its side and disorienting it for a few seconds. The few seconds that he needed to coat his fist with twice the flames as before and ram it into the beast's skull, shattering its mask and its bones and ending what passed for its life.

 _Damn I hate this stupid seal, back on Earthland I could have taken these things down easily by the time Lucy first joined. If it weren't for the fact that I know it would be even more troublesome for everyone to know my true strength I never would have made the damn thing in the first place._

Once more pushing his thoughts aside, Natsu closed his eyes again and tried to locate his sisters to make sure they were doing okay. Finding them not only together, but only about a hundred yards away, Natsu took off in their direction, from the looks of things they were with Jaune and Blake, with Weiss about two hundred feet above them. How she got there he had no idea and frankly didn't care, the drop from the cliff was higher so she should be fine as long as she didn't panic. _Wonder why Jaune isn't with Pyrrha. They either got separated or she got held up fighting some Grim too tough for him to handle, but that wouldn't make sense, his aura is as high or higher than hers, he shouldn't be having enough trouble with anything here to the point that Pyrrha would send him on ahead… unless he just got lucky and was born with large reserves and doesn't have the skill to match it. Like Elfman before his wakeup call during the guild war with Phantom._

Whatever the case, he knew Pyrrha was alive at least, her aura was bright as ever and seemed to be closing in on the location the others were at, where he guessed was where the temple was located. Now all they had to do was grab whatever relics were there and get back to the school. Easy.

 _Wonder if Pyrrha would be up for celebrating us getting into Beacon tonight?_ Smirking, Natsu increased his pace. He had a mission to finish first, pleasure could come later.

* * *

 **Well, here's my first fight** **scene, sorry if it sucked but I'll hopefully get better with time. This chapter also gave a bit of a reference to Natsu's sealed abilities so for those who were curious I hope this satisfies you. Constructive criticism welcome.**

 **As for lemons, to be honest I don't really have much faith in my ability to write one so don't expect any until I do.**

 **Read and Review people,**

 **Wingd Knight out.**


	6. Chapter 5

**Still nothing to do.**

* * *

Arriving in the clearing where he had sensed the presence of the others, Natsu was treated to a fairly odd sight. Weiss was sitting on Jaune checking her nails while the boy in question was face first in the dirt. His sisters were standing around with Blake, Nora and Ren doing nothing, and Pyrrha was jumping away from a Deathstalker's snapping claws, also landing on her face. _That explains why Jaune wasn't with Pyrrha at least._

Running up to the others Natsu waved and called out, "Yo! What'd I miss?"

Turning her head to look at her younger brother, Yang couldn't help but remark "Great the gangs all here, now we can die together!" She sarcastically exclaimed.

Ruby gained a determined expression on her face, "Not if I can help it" she said before charging the scorpion shaped Grim with a battle cry. Natsu watched as she unfolded her scythe and pointed it behind her before unleashing several rounds to propel her forward at an increased rate. Flipping the blade upwards, the red cloaked girl tried to strike the Grim in the eye with its point. Unfortunately the Grim was faster than it appeared and smacked her away. Landing on her back Ruby slowly climbed to her feet while calling to the others, "Don't worry, totally fine" She did not sound convincing.

While she was returning to her feet, the beast had stalked up behind her. Luckily Ruby chose that moment to turn around, catching sight of the beast and reacting quickly hit the Deathstalker with two potshots to the face neither of which had any effect. Seeing she could not damage the Grim, Ruby turned around and began to run back to the others, refolding her scythe as she went.

Seeing their little sister in danger, both Yang and Natsu ran forward calling out to her "Ruby!" Yang cried in panic. The caw of a Nevermore drowned out any reply that might have been given. _How the hell did I miss that?_ The flying Grim opened its wings wide and puffed out its chest, to Natsu it looked like how Igneel would appear before unleashing a roar, however instead of a deadly elemental breath attack the raven looking Grim thrust its clawed wings forward and sent several dozen of its own feathers out like projectiles intent on impaling the young Rose.

Fortunately it seemed that the Nevermore wasn't a very good shot as all the feathers managed to hit was the ground and Ruby's billowing cloak. However this had the effect of not only stopping Yang in her tracks, but pinning Ruby to the ground with the Deathstalker still chasing her.

"Ruby get out of there!" Yang called out as Natsu continued rushing toward his little sister who herself was struggling to release her hood from the feather pinning her to the ground.

"I'm trying," Ruby grunted, still pulling on her cloak. She paused however as a shadow loomed over her, the Deathstalker was now right in front of her, its stinger poised to strike.

Seeing his sister in immediate danger of death ignited Natsu's fire enhanced rage and anger clouding his mind and judgment. Never breaking a step Natsu griped the cuff that sealed his powers and commanded it to loosen its grip. While he would need to remove the seal in order to access his full power, he was able to loosen it to the point where he could access roughly sixty percent of his full might if he so chose.

Feeling the rush of power that flooded his veins upon the loosening of his seal Natsu once more sent a burst of concentrated fire from the soles of his feet, blasting him forward at speeds that rivaled Ruby's semblance. With his fist cocked back, Natsu let loose a cry that sounded more like the roar of a beast than anything meant to come from a human mouth, and just as the Deathstalker began to bring down its golden stinger Natsu buried his burning first into the Grim's bone covered face the magic circle of the Fire Dragon Slayer briefly flashing at the point of contact.

The result stunned those gathered beyond words. Not only was the Deathstalker's whole head incinerated in an instant, but its body was sent flying across the clearing and deep into the woods, carried by a wave of flames so intense Ruby would swear she felt them from where she sat sprawled on the ground. Natsu himself stood there breathing heavy, with his left leg forward and body twisted to his left, his right arm across his torso and near the ground clenched hand smoking from the now extinguished flames that had covered them. It was not that he was tired or out of breath from the assault, but partially unleashing his powers did put a slight strain on his body. He likened it to opening a straining door part way and having to keep it from slamming wide open from the force of what lay behind it, only letting a sliver through.

Straightening back up again Natsu turned to a shell shocked Ruby, "You okay?" he asked her. Receiving a nod in turn Natsu wasted no time in dragging her to her feet and began running back to the others, "Then come on, we gotta move before the Nevermore comes back for another try." Ruby once again nodded, this time with slightly clearer eyes and followed her brother to where the others still stood too stunned to move.

"Come on guys, before that thing makes another pass." He told them, quickly grabbing a relic from one of the temple's podiums- the golden king piece to be precise.

The sound of her brother's voice seemed to snap Yang back into reality, where she immediately broke the others out of their stunned states as well with a loud, "What the **Hell** was _**THAT?!**_ " she exclaimed. She knew her little brother was strong, but the power that he just showed was unreal. Natsu was quiet for a moment, giving Weiss the time to start talking to Ruby, about what, Natsu didn't bother to listen.

"Talk later, move now." Was his short reply after another few seconds of silence. _Damn it, how am I supposed to explain that? Someone of my sealed power shouldn't be able to do something like that without a seriously strong weapon, I guess I could say I palmed one of my dust crystals and set it off along with a big chunk of my Aura and Semblance, but would they believe that? Shit, shit, shit._

Fortunately for Natsu, the others seemed to accept his stalling and after Jaune and Ruby grabbed their relics, a rook and knight respectively, they took off into the forest in the general direction of the starting cliff.

As the group of Beacon hopefuls ran through the forest, the Giant Nevermore was never far behind, though it never unleased another feather storm it also never showed any signs of leaving them be and returning to its nest. Weiss was the first one to speak up, "I don't suppose you have any way of taking down that Nevermore like you did the Deathstalker?" she asked Natsu.

"Does it look like I can punch the damn thing from here?" He asked the heiress in turn. Sure he could hit the Grim with a fire dragon's roar seeing as he had yet to retighten his seal, but the girl didn't know that.

"Well then does anyone have any other ideas?" Weiss asked, slightly ticked at how she was mocked.

It was Pyrrha who spoke up, "Natsu, do you still carry around a bunch of Fire Dust crystals?" she asked the cherry blossom haired boy.

"Yeah, I used one back there to take out the Deathstalker, why?"

"If I can get you high enough do you think you could do the same with the Nevermore?"

"No," he told her turning his head so that no one could see his face, "I had to use a good chunk of my Aura for it to have the effect it did, I won't be able to do it again this soon." A complete and total lie, but for the sake of his secret he had to do it. If there was no other choice he would step in again, but unless such a time came he would sit this fight out, no matter how much it pained him to do so.

Spotting something ahead of them, Jaune spoke up from his spot at the back, "If we can make it to that old temple, we may be able to get on the same level as the Nevermore, from there Natsu could throw some of his crystals and you guys could shoot them, setting them off like grenades." He suggested.

The others looked at each other skeptically before Nora surprisingly spoke up, "It could work, if we can hit the crystals with live rounds it should set them off like fireballs." She may not know much about weapons or dust in general, but she did know how to blow things up.

"Grenades with no shrapnel won't be able to do much damage to something like that." Ren said, playing the devil's advocate.

"He's right," Weiss said, "it may be able to give it a few burns, but chain activated dust isn't as strong as directly activated. We'll need something with more power to take it down."

Natsu inwardly cursed, so much for sitting it out. "If you guys can distract for a few minutes I may be able to pull something off that could take it down." He told them making sure to sound uncertain.

"What do you mean by 'may be able to pull something off'?" Blake asked.

"If I do it right, I should be able to hit the Nevermore with a blast that makes what I did to that Deathstalker look like a Sunday barbeque." He told them.

"And if you don't do it right?" Ruby asked this time.

"I'll tell you afterwards."

"That doesn't sound to convincing." Yang pointed out.

"Yeah well, right now it's the only plan I've got." He told her, once again making sure his tone sounded unsure of himself.

"Let's do it," Pyrrha spoke up before Yang could retort. She had faith in her rival and friend, if he said he had a plan she would follow it.

By that point they were crossing the bridge that separated the large temple from the forest, the Nevermore still above them. Halfway across the chasm the bridge spanned, the Grim seemed to realize the opportunity that was presented to it. Swooping down, the bird shaped Grim prepared to smash the old bridge with its colossal wings, hoping to send the nine young huntsmen to their death.

Having just received a crystal from Natsu, Pyrrha saw the incoming beast and decided that now was as good a time as any. "Go, go, go!" she called out to the others as she turned to the approaching threat and cocked back her arm. With the Grim now less than twenty meters away, the Minstral champion threw the apple sized crystal into its face, and just before it connected with the monster's masked vintage shot it with her weapon's rifle form causing an explosion that nocked the Nevermore off its previous course and forced it to pull up, least it ram into the Cliffside.

As this was happening the rest of the group made it into the temple and began climbing the stairs, everyone but Jaune and Nora holding Dust crystals similar to the one Pyrrha had just used on the Nevermore. "How do you afford so many crystals?" Ren asked, Dust rounds and powder were fairly cheap, but full sized crystals like these would each cost as much as a full restock on the ammo he used for his Storm Flower.

"I do odd jobs and don't use rounds." Was Natsu's quick reply as he took out one more crystal for himself.

Reaching the top of the stairs everyone with a gun took aim at the still circling Grim and began peppering it with bullets. "How long do you need to set up?" Ruby asked her brother even as Yang was forced to use her crystal to force the Nevermore back, never taking her eyes off the sky.

"About fifteen seconds should do it." He answered her, bringing his own Dust crystal to his mouth. Back in Earthland, Natsu was able to eat lacrima of his own element to replenish his reserves, and while there were no lacrima here on Remnant he found that Dust worked very similar to the magic crystals.

With his seal still loosened, he really didn't need to do this, but for appearances sake he bit down on the hardened Dust and began grinding it into powder with his teeth.

Halfway through the crystal, Weiss saw what he was doing from the corner of her eye, "What are you doing you dunce!? You'll burn yourself from the inside out!" Hearing what the heiress said, both Yang and Ruby stopped in their assault of the flying Grim to look at their brother.

"If I do this right that won't be the case." He told her calmly even as he made a show of taking a deep breath, as if taking the powdered Dust into his lungs when in truth he had already swallowed it during the white haired girl's screaming.

Holding his breath, once more just for show, Natsu turned his head toward the once more approaching Grim. _Fire Dragon's Roar._ Releasing the energy he had gathered in his lungs, Natsu unleashed a burning vortex just shy of six feet wide at the Nevermore, hitting it dead center in its chest. Upon contact, the vortex pushed the Grim away at breakneck speeds, even as the fire ate away at its chest, turning it to ash even as the bird was pushed higher and higher into the sky by the force of the attack. Just before breaking the cloud barrier the concentrated blast of fire burst through the body of the beast and continued onward into the sky.

Ending his assault Natsu made a show of bending over to regain his breath, even as he retightened his seal. Meanwhile the Grim, now missing a large part of its torso fell into the abyss under the temple, dissolving as it did.

Continuing to fake his panting, Natsu decided to make a comment, "Guess he couldn't take the heat." He joked. The others just stared at the red eyed boy, stunned.

* * *

 **Well here is the second half of initiation, hope it wasn't to bad. The others got to see a bit of what Natsu can do and everyone gets out of the Forest safe and sound.**

 **Don't expect another chapter anytime soon, my grandmother is coming in this afternoon and well she's batshit.**

 _ **Pole on my profile on how I should deal with Lemons, you have until the next chapter is posted to vote.**_

 **Read and Review,**

 **Wingd Knight out.**


	7. Chapter 6

**Here's the next chapter. Poll now closed.**

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"Cardin Winchester, Russel Thrush, Dove Bronzewing, and Sky Lark. You collected the black bishop pieces. From now on you will be known as team CRDL, led by… Cardin Winchester." Ozpin announced another new team. As the older students and faculty applauded the creation of the new team, Natsu took the time to study the four boys who made it up.

Sky was a boy of average height and build with shoulder length greasy grey hair and blue eyes. Dove was also average in height but with slightly broader shoulders, he had combed brown hair, eyes squinted to the point they looked closed, and a rounded face. Russel was on the shorter side, had slightly scrawny arms, a slim face, blue eyes, and black hair with a bleached mohawk on top.

It was Cardin however that drew Natsu's attention the most. He was taller than the average person, with orange brown hair, blue eyes- _what is with this team and blue eyes?-_ and a muscular build covered in armor. The thing that made Natsu notice him, his whole team in fact, was how he felt his hate flare up every time he saw a Faunus, and how his lust spiked whenever he saw a girl. And when he saw a female Faunus, the feelings Natsu got off him all but proved to him that Cardin Winchester was a racist and quite possibly a sexist as well.

 _If that bastard tries anything with Yang or Ruby he's so dead._

While Natsu was contemplating the different ways he could get away with killing Cardin should the boy step out of line, another team stepped forward to be named. "Juane Arc, Nora Valkyrie, Pyrrha Nikos, and Lie Ren. You collected the white rook pieces, from now on you will work together as team JNPR, led by… Jaune Arc." As applause once more filled the hall, Jaune looked stunned pointing at himself as if asking 'who, me?' Said expression was wiped off his face when he was knocked off his feet by Pyrrha's celebratory shoulder punch. _He needs to work on his footing._

Next up was his sisters' team, "Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna, and Yang Xiao Long, you retrieved the white knight pieces. You will hence forth be known as team RWBY, led by… Ruby Rose." Ruby herself wore an expression similar to the one Jaune just had, while Yang gave her sister a hug in celebration, Blake simply smiled a little, and Weiss… looked like someone just slapped her in the face with a raw fish. _Jeez, she must have really wanted to be a leader. This is going to cause SO many problems I just know it._

"And finally, Natsu Xiao Long. You collected the white king piece and returned to the cliff with no partner due to the uneven amount of students. Normally this would have you put on a reserve roster and unable to complete any missions until a spot opened up on one of the existing teams. However due to the extraordinary feats you accomplished during initiation," Here the screen used to show the faces of the previous teams changed to show recordings of his 'fights' with the Deathstalker and Giant Nevermore. "It has been decided to instead place you as a one man team, capable of taking low level missions solo and joining other teams as support on higher ranked assignments. If you would now come to my office, we will discuss everything you will need to know concerning your new position." Ozpin announced, stunning not only Natsu himself but everyone in the auditorium. One man teams were not unheard of, but they were always made of full-fledged huntsmen and huntresses. For a first year to be made into one was nothing short of incredible.

Following the headmaster, Natsu entered an elevator separate from the ones the students used to move about the school. With him were Professors Ozpin and Goodwitch, it seemed both wanted to talk to him and if he was reading the air correctly it was about more than just his placement as a solo fighter.

Ozpin's office was at the top of the tallest tower of Beacon and looked to be the inside of a giant clock with all its giant gears constantly ticking away and reinforced by the see through clock that acted as the main window behind the headmasters desk. Sitting in his chair with second in command by his side, Ozpin looked at the red eyed fire user with a serious expression, not saying a word for several long seconds before getting straight to the chase, "I will be blunt mister Xiao Long and simply ask what I want to know. How were you able to do what you did in the forest?"

While the bluntness was a surprise to the dragon prince, the question was not, "I set off a dust crystal point blank in the Deathstalker's face along with my Semblance powered by a good bit of my Aura. As for the Nevermore, I took some fire Dust into my lungs before pumping as much of my remaining reserves as I could in with it before sending it all out in one shot. To be honest I didn't expect it to be that strong, I guess having fire as my Semblance gave it a bit of a boost." Natsu told the white haired man calmly, not letting anything that might give away his lying show on his face.

Ozpin stared at him quietly for several more seconds before giving his rely, "Did you know that every step taken when in the Emerald Forest is closely monitored by both myself and Professor Goodwitch during initiation every year?" He asked the boy sitting in front of him with the same measure of calmness that he had displayed just moments before. "We also keep a close eye on the Aura levels of all the students engaged in combat. We took special interest in the confrontations you and teams RWBY and JNPR took part in. Now knowing this I ask you again, _how were you able to do what you did?_ " Ozpin asked Natsu, his voice becoming more forceful and stern at the end.

Although he appeared to remain calm Natsu was panicking inwardly, he should have known there would be cameras in the forest, how else would they know who was partnered with who? There was only two outcomes he could think of for this. One he reveals that he has sealed his powers and is hunting down a god level mass murderer, or two he calls the headmaster out on his claims of knowing that Natsu was hiding something. Needless to say he went with the second option.

"I already told you headmaster. I used Dust aligned with my Semblance to preform feats I am otherwise incapable of doing."

"I do not appreciate being lied to Mr. Xiao Long, you did not have anything in your hands when fighting the Deathstalker, yet your Aura rose to almost ten times the amount you are registered to have, and it _stayed_ that level for the remainder of your time in the forest before somehow dropping back to the levels you have been known to have. I want to know how." _Well that didn't work._

"May I ask why you want to know? And why should I tell you if I could do what you claim?" Natsu asked. Politics, not a fun thing by any means, but necessary.

"I want to know because if you have found a way to so dramatically increase the power of ones Aura, it should be taught to all potential huntsmen to give them a better chance of survival. Is that a good enough answer for you?"

 _This guy really doesn't pull any punches does he?_ "I'm sorry headmaster, but I don't know any way to increase someone's Aura reserves the way you're thinking. As far as I know the only way to increase them is to train." Natsu told the now scowling man. _Not even really a lie, that really is the only way I know to increase someone's power. Well that and doing some admittingly stupid things._ Natsu thought thinking about his fight with Jellal on top of the Tower of Heaven where he ate the power of the Eatherion.

Ozpin did not look happy, "I see. Then how do you explain your sudden increase and later decrease of your own power?"

"Like I said, I used Dust that was the same element as my Semblance. I guess the reaction it caused gave the illusion that my Aura increased for a time when it was really just the power the Dust itself gave off." Natsu tried to convince Ozpin, knowing at this point it was a useless gesture. "Is there anything else Professor?"

With one last look, Ozpin waved toward the door, "No Mr. Xiao Long that is all. I suggest you get moving and find your dorm, it's almost curfew."

As Natsu left the office, Glinda Goodwitch spoke up for the first time sense entering the room, "What do you make of him Ozpin?" She asked her boss and friend.

"He is hiding something. Even if the Dust he supposedly used fooled our equipment and gave us improper readings, they wouldn't have come back as high as they did. Not only that but the boy's attacks… they didn't give off the same feeling as what someone's Semblance normally does." Ozpin told the blond woman.

"What do you mean?"

"Those attacks felt like the power of the Maidens, like magic." This understandably shocked the woman, after all in the history of Remnant the only ones to ever have the power of magic were the Maidens which Natsu couldn't be due to him being male.

"How is that even possible?"

"I can think of only two ways. He is either working with the ones who tried to steal Amber's powers or got what they were able to harvest before Qrow's interference." Here Glinda looked and felt appalled, a Maiden's power was linked to their soul after all, and the thought of someone stealing a soul for power was sickening. "Or he is working with one of the undetermined Maidens and she gave him a piece of power in exchange for a service of some kind." This was a less likely possibility, as it was unknown even after all the years of studying the power of the Maidens if they were capable of giving their power to another willingly and without dying.

"I'll keep an eye on him." Glinda stated with the conviction of a solider going to war.

Ozpin only nodded solemnly.

Running down the deserted hallways, Natsu was able to catch up to his friend and sisters' teams just before they entered their own rooms, his own being just down the hall.

"Hey guys!" he waved to them causing them all to stop before entering their dorms.

"Hey there mister one man team, how was your talk with Professor Ozpin?" Yang teased her little brother.

"Boring, he basically just told me the same thing from the assembly. That and I get my own room, which is awesome." He told her, sneaking a glance at Pyrrha as he said the last bit. The girl in question noticed and lightly blushed at what she thought he was offering. If she knew that she was right about what she was thinking, her blush would have been far worse.

"Lucky you. Anyway, I don't know about you but I'm exhausted." Yang waved to them absentmindingly as she walked into team RWBY's dorm, ready for a nice long sleep after their adventures in the Emerald Forest. A thought that seemed to be shared by the others as well as they all bid their goodbyes and drifted into their respective dorms. As luck would have it, Pyrrha was the last one in the hall with him, and Natsu grabbed her arm lightly before she could follow her team. When Ren looked back at her with a raised eyebrow, she waved him off causing him to shrug and close the door.

As soon as they were alone, Natsu pulled the red haired girl close to him and whispered in her ear, "You know this is our first real night as Beacon students, how about we go celebrate?" He finished by blowing a small about of fire on her ear, not enough to burn but enough to give off a pleasant heat.

Pyrrha shuddered slightly at the feeling before rapping her arms around Natsu's neck and leaned back to look him in the eyes, "Oh? What did you have in mind?" she asked teasingly.

"How about we break in my new room, the beds must be in some dire need of… fluffing, after not being used all summer." Natsu told her with a smirk, to which she responded with a soft hum.

"I guess I could help you with that… What was the score when we left off?"

"Forty seven to thirty one in my favor."

This time it was Pyrrha's turn to smirk, "Well as the Goddess of Victory I can't just take a lose lying down now can I?" After spending some time as Natsu's friend Pyrrha's old insecurities had started to lessen, what with him not putting her on a pedestal and treating her as a normal woman instead of a perfect image that had to be maintained or an unreachable being.

"No, I guess you can't, but don't think I'll just let you win either." Natsu told her drawing her into a brief but deep kiss.

Once more pulling back, Pyrrha couldn't help but give a cocky little smile, "I wouldn't have it any other way."

As the two quickly darted off down the hall to the boy's privet dorm, neither noticed the golden catlike eye that was peering out of team RWBY's own room. _I need to set up some cameras in there…_ Blake thought with a burning blush.

"Hey blake what are you doing?" Yang called out to her partner.

"Nothing!"

* * *

 **OK the winner for what to do about lemons was to up the rating and put them in. Unfortunately I just found out my little brother is following this fic, he knows who he is, and quite frankly I don't want to have to listen to him about my writing them so for the time being there will be no lemons, maybe later I'll go with the second most voted for option (which lost by a good bit) and fill in the lemony bits in a different story. But I will say this, if that time comes I will only put the scenes that got skipped in to the new story, lemon scenes that come out after that point will go into the main story, that being this one.**

 **Any way, yeah Ozpin is on to Natsu but is thinking only within the bounds of his own knowledge and does not seem to think there might be a different variable, but remember this is the guy who is basically the authority on the deepest secrets of Remnant, he has a right to think he knows all the pieces in play (see what I did there?)**

 **Also Blake is onto Natsu and Pyrrha who themselves are going to have some privet fun time... lucky bastard. What? I'm not the only one thinking it.**

 **Read and Review**

 **Wingd Knight out**


	8. Chapter 7

**Longest chapter yet! Give me lots of Reviews people!**

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The morning after his talk with Headmaster Ozpin, Natsu Xiao Long woke up to the feeling of Pyrrha Nikos' head laying on his chest and her arms wrapped tightly enough around him that if he didn't have his Aura active he would be worried about cracked ribs. The memory of just why she was so dead to the world despite being an early riser made Natsu smile, the score was now a solid fifty to thirty three. They both had a LOT of stamina.

Looking over to his nightstand, Natsu saw that it was just after seven in the morning, giving them a little less than two hours to get to class. Gently untangling himself from Pyrrha's vice grip, he headed over to his new closet and saw several copies of the Beacon academy uniform that came with the room, he guessed they stocked them just after initiation sense they were all his size. Taking one of them out along with a towel, Natsu headed over to the connected bathroom, which was stoked like a hotel's with generic shampoo, body wash, and conditioner. _Gotta remember to go get some of my own._

After quickly scrubbing off the smell of his and Pyrrha's night time activities, Natsu walked out of the bathroom drying his hair and wondering if he should reapply the makeup he used to cover his Fairy Tail tattoo that he got the year before in honor of his old guild, in the end he decided not to. His dad wasn't there to freak out about him getting a tattoo now so what was the point?

"Pyrrha," he said gently shaking the girl's shoulder, "you should go get ready for class" he told her.

The red haired girl gave a small groan in response as she began to sit up, the blanket previously covering her body falling off as she did. "You know you shouldn't tempt a guy like that. We would be here all day." Natsu told her in a voice that told her he was only half serious.

"Even if that was an option, I don't think I'll be able to take another round for a while." Pyrrha told her friend as she moved to stand, her legs slightly unsteady. Looking at the clock she saw it was almost half past seven, she would have to hurry if she wanted breakfast before going to her first class. "You up for a spar later?" She asked walking around the room to retrieve her clothes from where they had been thrown the night before.

"Sure, it'll give me something to look forward to while listening to the teachers." Natsu said jokingly.

With a role of her eyes, the spartan retied her armored corset and opened the door, "At least pretend to pay attention Natsu, it would be terrible if we had to cancel because you got stuck in detention." With a final wave and a bit of a sway in her step, Pyrrha walked out of the Natsu's dorm and headed to her own, intent on getting a hot shower and some food before class started.

* * *

An hour and a half later found Natsu and Pyrrha waiting for team RWBY and the rest of team JNPR in professor Port's class, a class that was about to start. _Where are they? Don't tell me they forgot about class altogether…_ Fortunately for the two teams, they were able to enter the class room just as the bell began to ring. They were on time, barely.

As everyone settled down Professor Port began to speak, "Monsters" he called out, "Deeemons, prowlers of the night. Yes the Creatures of Grim have many names, but I merely refer to them as prey! Haha!" It seemed he was trying to get a reaction out of his students but none seemed willing to give one, Ruby had even fallen asleep halfway through the first sentence only to jerk awake at the professor's fake laugh. "Uhhh, and you shall to upon graduating from this prestigious academy." The grey haired man said in a more subdued tone trying to save his speech. "Now as I was saying, Vale, as well as the other three kingdoms, are safe havens in an otherwise treacherous world" _Oh please, plenty of people grow up outside the kingdoms it's not like you have to be a full-fledged huntsman to defend yourself from a couple beowolves._ "Our planet is absolutely full of creatures that would love nothing more than to tear you to pieces," _Okay, THAT part is true._ "and that's where we come in. Huntsmen!" he cried, "Huntresses," he said more quietly, pointing at Yang while winking and making a 'cli-click' sound with his tongue. Yang responded by simply rolling her eyes and groaning slightly, Natsu on the other hand had a bit more of a violent reaction. _If this guy_ _ **ever**_ _does that again I'm going E.N.D. on his ass!_ He screamed in his mind, his hand burning a hole into the desk in front of him with the angry fires that had sprung to life. Huh, thought getting a chance to fight some Grim and sleep with Pyrrha the day before would have calmed him down a bit… guess not.

Ignoring the sense of foreboding that suddenly seemed to grip him, Port continued with his speech. "Individuals that have sworn to protect those who could not protect themselves. From what you may ask, why the very world!" He finished by pumping his fist into the air.

Apparently at least one student found his speech motivational as a happy, "Ayyy-YA!" sounded from behind Natsu. The individual in question looked at the other students feeling embarrassed that he was the only one to make a sound, and sat down with his head on the desk.

"That is what you are training to become," Continued professor Port, "But first, a story. A tale of a young, handsome man… Me!" _Aaaaand, I'm not listening._

What followed was ten minutes of Port 'recounting' some of his first feats as a young huntsman, though the way he portrayed his acts it was doubtful anyone believed him. I mean come on, capturing an Alpha Beowolf without injury at the age of fourteen? Unlikely.

Throughout the entire speech, it seemed the only ones bothering to pay attention were Pyrrha and Weiss, though Pyrrha could have been acting. Natsu himself spent his time watching the antics of his little sister, who had done everything from draw mocking pictures of Port, balance her course books on her head, take a nap, and pick her nose.

Natsu decided to tune back in to the professor's speech just in time to catch the end, "The moral of the story is: A true huntsman must be Honorable, Dependable, Strategic, Well Educated, and Wise. "So, who among you believes yourself to be the embodiment of these traits?"

Before most were even given time to process the question, Weiss' hand was already in the air, "I do sir!" she called out to the teacher.

"Well then, he responded, "Let's find out." He told her, turning his head to face a large cage with the glowing red eyes of a Grim staring out of its barred front. _How the hell did I miss that thing?_ "Step forward and face your opponent."

Before Weiss could do so however, Natsu spoke up "Professor, all weapons are kept by the active combat classrooms, on the other side of the school. Sense we only have a few minutes of class left wouldn't it be better if an unarmed fighter did the demonstration? Just to make sure we finish in time for the bell." While this was all true, the real reason he brought it up was so he could get a warm up before his spar with Pyrrha.

"Hmm, very well Mr. Xiao Long, seeing as you are the only unarmed fighter in this class, it is up to you. Come, show us your metal."

With a smirk, Natsu got up and began walking down to the front of the room taking off his jacket and shirt as he did so they wouldn't get burned while he was fighting. Ignoring the red faces of his female classmates, Natsu took a ready stance in front of the cage.

"Go little Bro!" Yang cheared.

"Fight well!" Blake told him.

"Yeah, kick butt Natsu!" Ruby cried.

Weiss just 'humphed' and looked away.

Natsu could only roll his eyes at the girls antics and prepared himself for battle. "Alright," Port said, picking up his musket-axe, _Wait, aren't you supposed to put your shoulder where those blades are?_ "Let the match begin!" with that said, the portly professor swung his weapon at the lock that kept the cage closed opening it up and unleashing the Grim that had been trapped inside it.

 _A boretusk huh? Guess it's a good thing I took over, Weiss' reappear would never get through that things armor. Not at her level at least._

The beast didn't let him muse any farther on the subject as it charged toward him with reckless abandon. _Dumbass._ Stopping the beast in its tracks by grasping its tusks like he did with the Ursa Major's spikes in the forest, Natsu looked it in the eyes with a smirk, _too easy_ he thought. Bringing his left foot up, he placed it on the boartusk's nose where it had only its thick hide to defend it. A blast of fire like he used to fly erupted out of the sole of his foot, quickly burning the Grim's face into a charcoal like substance. A few seconds more and its whole head had turned to ash and the beast was dead.

"Marvelous!" Professor Port exclaimed, "It seems we are in the presence of a true huntsman in training. Now it seems that's all the time we have for today, make sure to go over the required readings. And remember, stay vigilant! Class dismissed."

Natsu began to put on his shirt as the other students exited the class and Pyrrha approached him, "That was today's only class, so what do you say we go have that spar?" She asked him.

Just as he was about to answer with consent, Natsu picked up on a feeling of anger coming from Weiss, and a feeling of sadness coming from Ruby. Normally he wouldn't be able to sense things like sadness due to the emotion not having a connection to fire, but his sensory magics included emotion sensing- which still didn't pick up Grim seeing as they only had instinct and no emotions. He was still better at sensing fire based emotions though.

"Sorry Pyr, I think I'm gonna need a raincheck on that." He told her grimly.

Taking the look on her friend's face as meaning it was something serious, Pyrrha just nodded and left to catch up with her team.

Walking out of the classroom, Natsu debated which of the two girls he should go to. From what he could sense, Weiss seemed to be heading to an empty terrace, and Ruby appeared to be talking to Ozpin. _Weiss it is then._

It took the Dragon Slayer only a minute to catch up with the heiress who was looking out over the academy grounds with an angry expression on her face. "You know scowling like that will give you some nasty wrinkles." Natsu casually said to get the girl's attention.

Spinning around to face the red eyed boy, Weiss lashed out at him, "What do _you_ want?" she said with a tone that could only be described as confrontational and mocking.

"I want to ask why you feel like a beacon of rage and anger, and find out what it has to do with my sister." He told her calmly.

Ignoring what he said about being a beacon, Weiss angrily started yelling at him, "Why am I mad?! What does it have to do with Ruby?! It has everything to do with that childish dolt! Her being made leader is an insult not only to me but to everyone who has ever been given the position. She is brash, childish, disrespectful, and has done absolutely _nothing_ to earn her position." The white haired girl ranted. "What I want to know is why Ozpin thought _she_ was fit to lead when she is clearly not even ready to be in this school."

 _I so knew this was coming._ "Then let me ask you this Ms. Schnee, what have _you_ done to make you feel so entitled to being your team's leader?" He asked her with an even tone.

"I trained for this, I was prepared my whole life to be the best. I studied, I was tested, I had proved myself worthy of coming to this school and SHE didn't even take the entrance exam."

"You think being kept safe behind high walls and being given the best tutors money can buy makes you better than Ruby, who was able to get in two years early by impressing the headmaster himself with her skills, who grew up in a Vale settlement outside the walls and has been in live combat situations for the past two years with her only teachers being our drunken uncle who was gone more often than not and her own sweat?" Natsu asked her.

Weiss seemed taken back by that but was too stubborn to simply back down, "That doesn't change the fact that she doesn't have the mind of a leader, she is little better than a child."

"And you are a prideful, stubborn, self-righteous, bitch who is one of the most racist students in our year. I fail to see how that is any better."

"Just because I accept the fact that Faunus are just a bunch of criminals doesn't mean I would be a bad leader." Weiss tried to defend herself.

Natsu's counter however was far more shocking then she had expected, "If you think Faunus are criminals just because of their race than you are a fool. How often have humans attacked, maimed, raped and killed not only Faunus but other humans as well? Get the stick out of your ass girl, the world isn't made of blacks and whites, there is more than enough red spilled in it everyday to blur those lines."

Weiss was shocked, no one ever spoke to her like that, she was the heiress to the Schnee Dust Company the wealthiest organization in all of Remnant, and it seemed Natsu wasn't even done yet.

"Ruby was chosen not for her brain, but for her heart. She values life and will willingly put herself in harm's way to protect anyone in need, no matter who or what they are. If you truly believe that team RWBY would be greater under your leadership just remember this: A General is only as strong as his army. You seek greatness, to be the best, then go show that you are worthy of it. There is more to life than just being in charge Weiss, you can go prove your worth not by leading others but by following a just path. Or wallow in your petty hatred and let the darkness claim you." With his piece said, Natsu turned and left the terrace, leaving Weiss to think over his words and make her choice.

 **With Ruby and Ozpin**

The headmaster had just finished talking to the red clocked girl about her and her teammate's fight when he was compelled to ask a question of his own, "Before you go Ms. Rose, may I ask you something about your brother?"

"Sure, what is it?" The teen asked.

"Has he ever disappeared for great lengths of time? And has he ever come back with his Semblance seeming different than when he left?" If anyone could help confirm his suspicions, it would be one of the boy's sisters.

"Well he _does_ go off sometimes for a few days, but never for more than like two or three weeks. And his Semblance was always kind of weird, why?"

"I just wanted to confirm something, I don't suppose you could tell me what his Semblance actually is?"

"Oh, he calls it the 'Flams of Emotion' he says that because they feed off of what he's feeling they are stronger than normal flames and can do lots of different stuff. Last month I even saw him use it like a solid rope!"

"I see… Thank you Miss Rose." _Two weeks is more than enough time to get from Patch to where Amber Autumn was attacked, and the first time Miss Rose saw her brother use his fire in a strange way was just after it happened. This does not bode well, I will have to tell the other Professors to keep an eye on the boy along with Glinda he could be dangerous._

* * *

 **Alright, another chapter done. For those of you who want to know, this chapter is over 300 words longer than the next longest one. This may not seem like much, but considering how short my chapters are compared to some other writers, it feels like a big deal to me.**

 **Anyway, some more deviance from cannon here and hopefully it didn't come out too clunky- be sure to tell me what you though of it.**

 **Wingd Knight**

 **PS: The most reviews I have ever gotten for one chapter is 13, lets see if we can break that record now that this story has over 150 follows and 120 favorites shall we?**


	9. Chapter 8

**Yes this is a new chapter, scroll down halfway if you already read this part.**

* * *

Two days after his talk with Weiss, Natsu was happy to see that the heiress and his little sister were on much better terms. They were not best friends by any means, but given a few weeks Natsu wouldn't be surprised if they became such.

That day had been their first combat class with Ms. Goodwitch, who for some reason seemed to hold some kind of thinly concealed hatred for him. Because combat class was a physical class, Ms. Goodwitch had briefly gone over the class guidelines and immediately began calling random pairs down to spar.

One of the pairs called down happened to be Jaune Arc of team JNPR and Dove Bronzewing of team CRDL. Without going into the details of the mockery of a fight it was easy to see that Jaune stood absolutely no chance from the get-go. He overreached when he swung his sword, he was knocked off balance every time he used his shield, and he almost tripped over his own feat every time he dodged. It was a really sad sight.

After class was dismissed, Jaune had wasted no time in exiting the room, his head down and an aura of depression clinging to his form. Seeing the team leader in such a state had made Natsu give a drawn out sigh as he came to a conclusion. He would help the blond learn to fight. While the two did not know each other well, seeing as they were not part of the same team and had no prior interactions before Beacon, Natsu could not just look the other way when the guy clearly needed help. Plus he was a friend of Pyrrha's, and a friend of Pyrrha's was a friend of his.

With this in mind, Natsu quickly followed the knight themed huntsman in training, intent on lending his services to the boy.

"Jaune!" Natsu called out to the blond.

Hearing his name, the boy in question stopped his depressed walk and faced the one calling him. "Natsu?" He questioned, "What's up?"

Deciding to not beat around the bush (as if he ever did) Natsu stood in front of his friend and bluntly told him, "Your footwork back there sucked. Now were going to fix it, come on."

"Wh-What!?" Jaune cried as the red eyed teen began to drag him in the direction of one of Beacon's many training fields.

"Just what I said, your footwork when fighting Dove was terrible. Now in the forest you came up with a plan to help take care of the Nevermore almost instantly so I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say you got in because of the theory portion of the entrance exam not the physical one, right?" Getting a hesitant nod from the Arc Natsu continued, "Right, some of your biggest problems when you were fighting Dove was that you couldn't hold your ground when blocking and couldn't keep your center of balance when dodging. Luckily for you both of those things can be fixed at least in part with better footwork, something I'm a master of."

"Um, what do mean by 'footwork'?" Jaune asked him.

"How to plant your feet to give yourself the most power behind your blows, how to be able to take the most force without being knocked on your ass, and how to move without tripping or leaving yourself open." Natsu explained to his fellow teen. "Also, while I admit to not being on Pyrrha's level, I could also help you with your over reaching problem when you use your sword." He offered.

Jaune looked down at his feet upon hearing the Dragon Slayer's words, "Why would you help me? You already know how pathetic I am." He said to the pinket.

"No one starts out as a master Jaune, and besides you're both Ruby's and Pyrrha's friend so I can't just leave you out to dry now can I?"

Hearing Natsu's explanation cheered Jaune up slightly but also raised a question in his mind, "I know Ruby's your sister, but how do you know Pyrrha anyway? You two seem pretty close."

"We met at an inter-kingdom tournament a few years back when we were paired to fight each other. As for why we're so close, well, have you ever heard the term 'Friends with Benefits'?" He asked Jaune.

In response the blond's face took on a deep red hue as he stuttered out, "Wait! You and Pyrrha..!?" Jaune couldn't bring himself to finish his sentence.

By that point they had reached an empty training field so Natsu let go of Jaune's arm as he turned to face him, "Yes Jaune, me and Pyrrha are sleeping together. What did you think we did when she didn't come back to your guys' dorm the first night?" From the look on the poor boy's face, it defiantly wasn't that. Shaking his head Natsu walked to the center of the field motioning for Jaune to follow him, "Whatever, let's get started shall we?"

* * *

Two hours. Natsu had drilled Jaune in basic movement exercises for two hours straight. "*Pant pant* Why *huff* couldn't we *weez * have started with *cough cough* how to block?" questioned Jaune while lying sprawled on his back gasping for air.

"Right now you are barely stronger than the average teen, if you tried to block a strike from someone like Cardin, or Mavis forbid _Yang_ it wouldn't matter how solid your feet are, you would be blasted off them and your arm would most likely crack if not outright shatter from the blow. So until you either beef up a bit or learn to channel your Aura into your bones and muscles, we're gonna go with you simply not getting hit at all instead of learning how to properly take one." Natsu explained to his unofficial student.

Jaune didn't know what he meant by channeling his Aura or who this 'Mavis' person was, but he could certainly agree with not wanting his arm to be broken so he simply dropped his head back onto the trampled grass and didn't argue.

Seeing the state Jaune was in, Natsu knew they wouldn't be getting any more work done that day so walking over to his prone form he held his hand out for the blond to take, "That's enough for today, we'll continue tomorrow. Now come on dinner's starting soon, we don't want to be late." He told him.

With a shaky nod, Jaune took his new teacher's hand and allowed himself to be pulled to his feet before following the red eyed teen to the cafeteria his legs protesting every step of the way.

"Where have you guys been?" Yang asked the duo when they joined the rest of their group for dinner.

"Training." Natsu simply told her.

"Oh, are you planning on learning how to use a sword Natsu?" Pyrrha asked her friend.

"Um, he's actually the one teaching me…" Jaune shyly corrected.

"Really? You never struck me as a martial arts user Jaune. Why the sudden interest?" Ren asked his leader.

"I'm not learning martial arts, Natsu's teaching me how to dodge." Jaune explained to the pistol user.

"Back to basics huh?" Yang asked him, "Yeah after we found out what my semblance was I _completely_ dropped that part, when Natsu here found out I was just tankin' every blow sent my way he was _pissed_. If he plans on training you like he did me you better be ready for a lot of bumps and bruises Lady Killer, my little bro doesn't really know the meaning of 'holding back'."

"Pot meet Kettle" Ruby murmured under her breath while nibbling on a cookie.

Blake snorted quietly when she heard what her leader said, even with only knowing Yang for a few days, the cat Faunus could certainly see how accurate such an accusation was. And speaking of accusations… Blake remembered the night before initiation, how Natsu said he could 'smell' that she was a Faunus, and that he himself was human. This was something she just couldn't believe. Even after spending several days at Beacon, no one other than him even suspected her true heritage, not even the other Faunus she had come across the last few days. There had to be another way that Natsu could tell she was a Faunus, no human should have been able to tell the truth about her from smell alone if a Faunus couldn't. _If he even is human,_ Blake thought to herself, looking over at the pink haired boy. _He doesn't look that much like Yang at all so is he even really her brother? Or is he a Faunus that was adopted by her parents?_ There was an easy way to find out actually, all she had to do was ask him. "Hey, Natsu?" Blake addressed the fanged boy, _another point for him being a Faunus._ "Can I talk to you after dinner? There's something I wanted to ask you."

"Huh? Oh, sure Blake, where?"

"Meet me by the fountain when you're done, I need to go grab something first." She told him, picking up her now empty tray and ignoring the knowing look on her partners face, Blake left the others to finish their meals, all the while pretending not to notice Natsu staring at her ass as she walked away.

 _Damn…_ Natsu thought, _that is one grade A-_ "OW! What was that for?" Natsu asked while rubbing his arm where his twin had just punched him.

"Just to remind you, no touching." Yang told her brother.

"What are you talking about?"

"Oh come on little brother, a girl just asked to talk to you _privately_ , at night, by fountain. How dense can you be?"

 _Oh yeah, she doesn't know I can sense emotions… and that I'm not a virgin. "_ I seriously doubt she wants to talk about what you're thinking Yang, get your head out of the gutter." Natsu told his sister.

"We'll see." Was all Yang said in response.

Having finished his food, Natsu just stood to leave with a grumbled, "Weirdo" directed toward his sister. _Lets go see what Blake wants._

* * *

The sun was just beginning to set as Natsu walked up to Beacon's memorial fountain to meet with Blake. The fountain itself was made of white stone and surrounded a statue of the Academy's founders, whose names Natsu had never bothered to learn.

Sitting there on the ledge of the fountain with her head down was Blake Belladonna, the cat Faunus that was too afraid to let her true self be seen, and so kept who she was hidden behind a little black bow.

"Did you tell your team at least?" Natsu asked the girl sitting down next to her.

"With a Schnee as part of it? Not likely." She responded not looking up.

"They will find out sooner or later, if you don't tell them now it will only cause more damage when they learn the truth." Natsu told her mournfully.

"I'm careful enough that they won't find out unless someone who already knows tells them. And while we're on the topic, that's actually the reason I wanted to talk to you." Blake said as she finally turned to face the Dragon Slayer.

Raising an eyebrow, Natsu waited for her to continue. "How were you able to tell I was a Faunus? You claim to have smelled cat on me, but you also say you're human. I want the truth, how did you know? Are you really a Faunus as well?" She questioned him.

Slowly breathing out through his nose, Natsu contemplated how to answer her. _I can't tell her the truth, she would never believe me and would just cause more problems, but I really am human and I did find out because of her scent. She can try to hide it but a Dragon's nose can't be fooled._ "I was only able to smell you when I was specifically searching for the smell of cat. Your bow twitched while my sisters were arguing with Weiss, after that I just put the pieces together."

"Then how come none of the other Faunus have been able to tell what I am? Even if you could only find out when looking for it the nose of a Faunus if far stronger than a human's." She rebutted.

"How do you know they haven't? For all you know they could just be respecting your decision to hide and are leaving you alone." Judging by the way Blake's eyes widened when he said that, Natsu guessed such a thing had not occurred to the cat Faunus.

Steeling her resolve, Blake spoke again, "You still haven't told me, are you really human? Or are you a Faunus like me?"

"You're on a team with both my sisters and know for a fact that they are human, why would you think I was any different?" Natsu asked in turn.

"You three look absolutely nothing alike meaning there is a possibility that one of you or all of you are siblings through adoption and not by blood."

Hearing the girls reasoning, Natsu chuckled lightly, "Yang and I are twins while Ruby is our half-sister. Yang looks like our mother with our dad's coloring while I look more like a mix between the two. Ruby looks practically like a clone of her own mother. And before you ask, my mom doesn't have pink hair, I dye mine like this; it's naturally black."

His answer seemed to appease the golden eyed girl next to him, but Natsu could still feel her caution toward him, it was obvious she didn't trust him. "How do I know you're telling the truth?" She asked him.

"Two ways, you can either ask Yang and Ruby if what I told you is true. Or…" Calling upon his magic, Natsu raised his right hand palm up and willed one of the many magical flames he knew of to form, a light blue almost silver flame to be exact "you can look into this, and see for yourself. It's called the 'Flames of Memories'. Traditionally water or earth is used as the catalyst for viewing memories, but this will work just as well." He told her.

Blake herself was shocked at what she was seeing, she knew that Natsu could control fire, but something like this… "How are you able to do this? Something like this shouldn't be possible for a combat type Semblance like yours."

Natsu couldn't help but smirk at her question, "I never told you what my Semblance was did I?" he asked her. Getting a confused look form the girl Natsu decided to elaborate by telling her the story he'd come up with to hide his magic, "I call it the 'Flames of Emotion'. By using what I feel in conjunction with my Aura, the fire I produce is far stronger than it has a right to be for the amount of power I put into it. As for how I can do something like this, my fire takes on the aspect of the emotion I put into it, when I was fighting in the forest I used anger and rage, right now I'm using nostalgia and the emotions I felt in the memories that I want to show you to give some of my experiences to you instead of burns. Cool huh?" In truth Natsu had no idea what his Semblance was, or if he even had one. Quite frankly he didn't care.

Blake though defiantly believed what Natsu had said about the fire he had summoned, just being near it made her remember her past in vivid detail, her time in the White Fang, befriending Adam… leaving him behind.

After continuing to stare at the silver flames for several more seconds, Blake shook her head, "No, I'll just ask Yang. If what you say about your fire is true I would feel what you felt, and quite frankly I don't need a guy's memories in my head."

"Fair enough" Natsu said, closing his hand and snuffing the fire out.

Looking down once more, Blake thought about what Natsu had just told her about his Semblance, _flames that change properties depending on what he's feeling…_ "What happens when you use Lust to power your fire?" If his nostalgia flames made her feel such strong, well, nostalgia just for being near them, what would happen if flames of Lust _burned_ her?

Too bad for her that Natsu doesn't get embarrassed as easily as other people- "It would function as a powerful aphrodisiac for whoever touched it." – And was far blunter than he should be sometimes.

With his piece said, Natsu stood to leave the now blushing girl alone, leaving her with some parting words, "I should also mention that my Semblance grants me empathy, I can tell you feel angry and guilty about something Blake, I won't ask what but I will say that you shouldn't bottle your feelings up. All that pressure has to go somewhere, and if you wait too long it just might explode." And with that Natsu began to walk back to his dorm, leaving Blake to her thoughts as the sun sunk under the horizon, leaving the world cast in shadows.

* * *

 **I'm sorry to all of you who were hoping for a full chapter this time, but my week has been kind of full. Three tests, four quizzes, a paper, and a project, all in one week. And next week is the start of two weeks of State Testing!**

 **Anyway, to get this up in time I decided just to use Natsu and Blake's talk to make this chapter full length. Again, sorry.**

 **On another note, all poles are now closed, my side story will be a Percy Jackson X Fairy Tail story about Natsu being the son of Hestia! (On that note 2 of the top three most voted for options were Percy Jackson crossovers... I'll be honest I did not expect that.) The first chapter will either be out tomorrow, come out along with the next chapter of this fic, or will take the place of this stories new chapter next week, depending on how my ADD plays out.**

 **Sense I re uploaded this chapter everyone is free to:**

 **Read and Review!**

 **Wingd Knight out.**


	10. Chapter 9

**Shameless filler chapter.**

* * *

Several days after his talk with Blake found Natsu walking through the streets of Vale with his sisters and their teammates, his arms laden with several bags full of miscellaneous goods. Ruby thought it would be a good idea to do some 'team bonding' in the form of a shopping trip. As for why Natsu was there, well his sisters were broke and knew he had lot of money saved up from the various freelance jobs he did before going to Beacon. _They have the heiress of one of the richest families in Remnant with them, why do they have to mooch off me?_ Natsu thought with a sigh. _This must be how Lucy felt when Happy and I ate her food._

Seeing the look on her brother's face Yang slung her arm over his shoulder and called in a much to happy voice, "Oh, cheer up little bro! You get to spend the day with three gorgeous girls, and Weiss!"-"Hey!" "What could possibly be better than this?" She asked him rhetorically.

"How about not having to pay for four girls on a shopping spree, one of which I may add has a trust fund worth more than our house! Seriously, why am I paying for all this crap?" He asked the girls, raising the bags slightly for empathies.

"Well, I invited Weiss so it would be rude to ask her to pay, Yang and I don't really have any money, and aren't boyfriends supposed to pay for their date's stuff?" Ruby spoke up, looking between him and Blake as she said the last part.

"We aren't dating." Blake bluntly told the younger girl, "And even if we were I wouldn't make him buy all the stuff I wanted. I would pay for it myself."

"Then why aren't you doing that now?" Natsu questioned her, "At least if we were dating I would get something out of it, but right now your just one more person that's burning through my savings!"

Blushing Blake walked a little faster to put some distance between the fire user and herself, "I'm, uh, kinda broke too…" She admitted.

After several seconds of awkward silence, Ruby asked a question of her own, "What would you be getting out of it Natsu?" She asked her brother.

"What?"

"If you and Blake were dating, what would you be getting out of it by paying for her stuff?"

Not seeing a problem with telling his sister, Natsu shrugged his shoulders, "S-" Before he could even finish the word, Yang's hand was covering his mouth, preventing him from making an eligible sound.

"Nothing! He would get nothing, Rubes." Yang quickly said covering up what her twin had been trying to say. Natsu rolled his eyes at his sister's behavior, honestly Ruby was fifteen and Yang still acted like she was a four year old whenever anything that was even remotely related to sex came up.

Ruby took her sister's words at face value and simply kept walking, "Oh, let's go to Dust Till Dawn, I need to reload on Crescent Rose's ammo." With that the young Rose sped off in the direction of her favorite store, leaving her team and brother to follow. Sighing at the girl's antics, the four remaining hunters in training began to jog after the red clocked reaper.

* * *

Dust Till Dawn was an average sized store that catered to huntsmen and huntsmen-in-training, all along the walls of the shop were rows and rows of Dust crystals, powders, and rounds. It was no wonder Ruby liked the place so much, it was filled to the brim with weapons and explosives!

Natsu, not feeling the need to restock his crystals, left the girls to do their shopping. Leaving the shopping bags with the store owner who had become good friends with Ruby over the years, Natsu went back outside.

 _Geez, where do they plan to even put all that crap?_ Natsu asked himself, stretching his arms to work out the cramps that had built up from caring the girls' bags.

"Pathetic. To think the great Salamander would fall so low in a mere two decades."

The voice was all too familiar to Natsu, even after all the years since he had last heard it. "Acnologia, I was wondering when you'd show your face." Turning to face the tyrant king, Natsu was unsurprised to see that the black dragon was the same as how he remembered him. Dark blue hair, neon blue eyes, and tattoos covering his arms. It was almost like they were never reborn. Except for one thing.

"Nice arm." Natsu couldn't help saying, "Do you still get phantom pains from when Igneel ripped the old one off?"

"Every day, Dragneel." The tyrant told him.

Smirking, Natsu decided to see how far he could push his old enemy, "So what convinced you to get off your sorry ass and come find me? I thought you would have been at my door the second your power returned."

Acnologia scowled at the insult, "Believe me _dragon,_ " he spat the word out like it was the greatest insult one could give, "When my power does return your days will end soon after."

One word stood out when the dragon kings said that, " _When?_ Don't tell me you're still recovering from the transfer of worlds?" Seeing Acnologia's scowl deepen Natsu couldn't help but laugh, "Oh Mavis, you _are!_ Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!" He couldn't help himself, here he was face to face with his greatest enemy and he could probably kill the guy with ease. Still chuckling, Natsu looked at the blue haired king before him, "If your power hasn't returned yet, then why are you here Acnologia? Are you so arrogant as to think you could beat me at anything less than full power?"

"No Dragneel I am not. I have come for a different reason." The dragon told the red eyed slayer, his face still set in a deep scowl, "I came here to warn you. I am not the only threat to this world."

"Yeah I know. Their called Grimm. Big black soulless things that are a dime a dozen." Natsu said.

"Do not mock me Salamander. I do not consider that _trash_ to be anything more than a nuisance at best. No, the threat is one born from man. They are gathering the pathetic dregs this world has of magic and plan to become the rulers of a new age." Acnologia told him.

Now Natsu was paying attention, "Why are you telling me this? I would have thought you would join them if they were such a 'threat'."

If anything the dragon's scowl only deepened, "As if I would stoop so low as to ally myself with such weak things. No I am telling you this because I can sense that you have sealed your power, lowering yourself to the level of these pathetic beings who call themselves _warriors_. I want you to be aware of the dangers you have opened yourself up to by making such a foolish mistake, because if you die by any hand but mine any victory I may later achieve would be tainted by the knowledge that I never got my revenge. I will not let my pride suffer for your idiocy Salamander, you _will_ live, if only so _I_ can have the pleasure of killing you myself."

Now it was Natsu's turn to scowl, "Then how about we get that out of the way and I kill you now?"

Acnologia just laughed at his words, "Just because my full power has yet to return does not mean that I am defenseless Dragneel. Even as weakened as I am a fight between us would destroy everything around us for miles, and I know your bleeding heart couldn't stand that any more than my pride could stand fighting you at anything less than both our full powers. Do not fret Salamander, the time for our next battle will come soon enough. Just be sure to live until then." With that, the dragon in human form turned his back to Natsu, silently saying that he was not afraid of him, and walked off leaving the Fairy Tail wizard to think about what he had said.

 _What the hell was that? What is that bastard planning? There's no way he would just tell me something like that unless he got something out of it… Unless it's just like he said and he just wants to get the chance to fight me himself. If there is one thing dragons and humans have in common it's the fact that they hate to lose or have their pride take a hit. But who's gathering magic? Heck I didn't even know this world had magic other than the two of us, where are they even getting it?_

Natsu's train of thought was broken however when team RWBY exited the Dust store "Yo, little bro!" Yang yelled- right in Natsu's ear.

"Gak! Damn it Yang what the hell was that for?!" Natsu demanded, rubbing his now throbbing ear.

"You were staring at the same spot in the road for the past five minutes, couldn't think of any other way to get your attention." Yang shrugged uncaring of her twins apparent pain, "Anyway we got all the stuff we wanted, and Weiss was nice enough to pay since you just up and left like that, so lets head back to the school now. The last airship leaves in twenty minutes." Yang told him, before shoving several of the shopping bags he had been carrying earlier into his arms, "Let's go I don't want to have to walk back."

"I'm coming, I'm coming. Geez." Natsu said allowing his sister to push him along. He could think more on what Acnologia said later.

* * *

 **Right well to be honest even I think this chapter is pretty much crap, but I said I would have a chapter done today so here ya go.**

 **Acnologia makes his first appearance and reveals he is still recovering his power, and Natsu learns there are other magic users on Remnant. Other than that nothing happened this chapter. Like at all.**

 **In other news next chapter will skip back to cannon's time frame and my state testing ends this upcoming Friday so full length chapters will soon be making a comeback. Also the story I write when my ADD makes it too hard to focus on only one thing 'Dragon of the Hearth' now has the set up chapters posted, please check it out and tell me what you think. Just don't expect another chapter for it to come out too soon, like I said it is a secondary priority.**

 **And finally the Beta who said they would check my chapters never responds so I'm currently looking for a new one, if anyone wants the job send me a message (I'm looking at you Jack Redhawke).**

 **Please Read and Review,**

 **Wingd Knight out.**


	11. Chapter 10

**Full chapter this time.**

* * *

 _He's gotten better,_ Natsu thought watching as Jaune and Cardin spared one day in Ms. Goodwitch's combat class. It had been almost two weeks since Acnologia had given his warning to Natsu about someone gathering the magic of Remnant and since then Natsu had been splitting most of his free time between training Jaune and looking into the Dragon King's claims. This led to two interesting discoveries. One, while Jaune couldn't fight barehanded to save his life he was a borderline prodigy when it came to swordplay, by the end of the year he would be on par with most of their classmates. And two, someone with an extremely damaged Aura was being stored beneath the school, someone who had magic.

The night he and his sister's team came back from their shopping trip, Natsu had decided to see if Acnologia was telling the truth, and he decided the best way to start was to search for any magic signatures. He remembered what magic felt like from his first life, and he learned to tell the differences between peoples' Aura long ago, so spreading out his senses with the magic that Zeref had given him, Natsu had a fairly good idea what to look for. It came as a surprise however that instead of only feeling the magic that Acnologia had left behind when he talked to him, he also felt magic coming from the depths of the school. He had wanted to go see the source right then and there, after all he thought he would never see another wizard again, but then he looked deeper.

Whoever it was down there was in bad shape. Their Aura, something that Natsu had learned was deeply connected to one's soul, was warped and felt broken, like someone had torn it in half. And that didn't even take into account the state of their magic, it was like a tug of war was constantly being fought over the power making what Natsu guessed to be mid to high B ranked energy levels only mid C. Neither was anything special by Earthland standards but for Remnant it would put the user in the top five percent of the huntsman roster, he would know his Uncle Qrow was ranked as the second strongest huntsman alive with only Ozpin above him.

Seeing this only made him want to see them more, they were obviously fighting whatever happened to them and were in a great deal of pain and he hopped that he could help with the soul based fire spells that he learned from Zeref or the healing spells from Mavis somehow, either to restore their health or dull the pain. Unfortunately wherever they were being kept didn't have an easy to find entrance and while he could just blast a hole down to whatever chamber they was being kept in he had a feeling doing so would be taken the wrong way.

"That's enough." Professor Goodwitch called out, bringing Natsu back to the present. It seemed Cardin had beaten Jaune, though the knight had managed to take almost an eighth of the other leader's Aura. "You have improved a great deal Mr. Arc, but you still have a long way to go. Next time please refer to your scroll during combat, gaging your Aura will help you decide when it is appropriate to attack and when it is best to move to a more defensive strategy. Do this and maybe you won't die the first time you see an Ursa, and we wouldn't want that now would we?" She asked rhetorically.

"Speak for yourself." Cardin muttered.

Hearing what the two of them said angered Natsu. 'Refer to his scroll during combat'? That's one of the stupidest things you could do in a fight! Why would you take your eyes off your opponent just to see your reserves? The only reason you would need to would be because you were losing, making focusing on something else an even dumber thing to do. Clearly Professor Goodwitch had either never been in close quarters combat- which given her weapon and Semblance was very likely- or she highly underestimated just how fast paced a fight could be.

And Cardin's remark… saying something like that so casually showed a clear disregard of life, something Natsu detested. He would admit that he had taken lives before, both during the war with the Alvarez Empire, and on several jobs that were assigned to him and his team by the Magic Counsel and later the Royal Family after the Grand Magic Games. He hated killing, but even someone who had been as naive as he had been knew that sometimes it was safer for everyone to do so. The sayings about soldiers forced to kill desiring peace the most were more true than many realized.

Goodwitch's voice brought Natsu back to reality a second time when she began to speak to the class as a whole, "Remember everyone, the Vytle festival is only a few months away, it won't be long before students from the other kingdoms start arriving in Vale, so keep practicing. Those who choose to compete in the combat tournament will be representing all of Vale." She announced to the gathered students as the bell started to ring, causing exited shouts and murmurs to erupt from them.

While the rest of their class was talking about the festival, Natsu and Pyrrha were more concerned with Jaune, who sat in the arena where he had fallen upon his defeat by Cardin, his head bowed in depression. Walking up to the blond, the Pyrrha pulled her partner to his feet, Natsu standing beside her. "Come on Jaune, let's go get something to eat." She told the depressed knight. The prospect of food did not seem to raise the boy's spirits in the least, but he nodded his head anyway and walked past his two concerned friends, heading for the cafeteria.

Seeing that Jaune's actions had made Pyrrha even more worried, Natsu put his hand on his friend's shoulder, "Don't worry, everyone gets a little upset when they lose a fight. Remember the first time I beat you? You pouted for an hour and ate a gallon of chocolate ice-cream. I'm sure that he'll bounce back in a little bit, and if not we can talk to him and drag him out of his funk that way, okay?" he told his friend, earning his own nod of the head.

"Yeah," she agreed brightening up slightly, "now come on, I'm hungry and I hear they have chocolate croissants today." She told him, grabbing his hand and dragging the slayer in the direction of the lunchroom.

 _Sheesh, she likes chocolate like Erza liked cheesecake._ Natsu thought with a shudder, may whatever gods that may exist have mercy on the poor fool who gets in the way of one of the redheads and their favorite food.

* * *

Arriving at the cafeteria the two tournament champions took their seats with team RWBY and the rest of team JNPR just as Nora began one of her infamous 'recountings' of her and Ren's past adventures which more often than not sounded like something strait out of Professor Port's own mouth, Ren correcting her at every turn. "There we were, in the middle of the night." –"It was day."- "We were surrounded by Ursai"- "They were Beowolves"- "Dozens of them!" –"Two of them" Ren sighed- "But they were no match, and in the end Ren and I took them down and made boatload of lien selling Ursa skin rugs." She finished her tail with an air of satisfaction, seeming unaware that only Yang had been paying any form of attention, Weiss had been polishing her nails, Jaune depressingly poked at his food, Ruby watched Jaune with a worried expression, Blake read a book that Natsu was almost positive was some kind of porn, and he and Pyrrha were giving each other silent looks that spoke of plans of a less than innocent nature.

"She's been having this reoccurring dream for nearly a month now." Ren tried to explain his childhood friend's eccentric tale.

"Jaune, are you okay?" Ruby questioned her friend.

"Huh?" The blond knight asked seeming confused, "Oh, yeah. Why?" He asked in turn, his eyes never meeting the others at the table.

"It's just you seem a little…not… okay." Ruby confessed.

Seeing that the others around him shared the gothic girl's concerns Jaune tried to assure them, "Guys I'm fine. Seriously. Look!" He said giving a thumbs up a strained smile and a fake laugh.

Hearing the laughter of someone else the blond tuned his head to see Cardin and the rest of team CRDL around a rabbit Faunus with brown hair and ears mocking her and making her visibly uncomfortable.

With one last worried look at Natsu, Pyrrha turned to talk to her partner herself, "Jaune, Cardin's been picking on you since the first week of school."

"Wh-Who? Cardin Winchester? Naw, he just likes to mess around, you know practical jokes." Jaune told them, trying to wave off their concerns.

"He's a bully." Ruby bluntly told her fellow team leader with a frown.

"Oh please," Jaune said, "Name one time he's 'bullied' me." He challenged them.

Natsu, being the kind of guy he was took that challenge, "Let's see, he's knocked your books and homework out of your hands in the hallway, opened you shield in doorways to get you stuck, and when Goodwitch was telling us how to use the locker's rocket function he locked you in one and sent you flying." He listed off.

By that point both teams had given Jaune their full attention, "I didn't land far from the school." Jaune tried to defend himself.

"Jaune you know if you ever need help you can just ask." Pyrrha told her leader.

"Ooh" Nora cut in standing up from the table, "We'll break his legs!" She exclaimed with far too much enthusiasm, not that they were all opposed to the idea.

"Guys its fine." Jaune tried to assure his friends. "Besides, it's not like he's only a jerk to me, he's a jerk to everybody."

"Ow, that hurts!" They heard a girl scream. Looking over the group saw that the scream came from the rabbit Faunus that CRDL was picking on, the cause being Cardin himself pulling on the girl's ears.

Seeing this angered Natsu more than anything else Cardin had done since they had come to Beacon, they were in a school to train guardians and soldiers, to have the gall to disrespect another student here- to disrespect someone who was being trained to protect and die- showed Natsu that team CRDL didn't deserve to even be there.

Reacting on instinct, Natsu stood up from his chair and stalked toward the taller boy, ignoring the questions from his friends and sisters. Walking up to the team leader Natsu roughly grabbed the brown haired boy's wrist forcing him to let go of the ear he had been pulling and causing him to face Natsu with an angry expression on his face, only to see the salmon haired teen with his arm drawn back, hand curled into a tight fist.

As soon as the bully had fully turned, Natsu threw his fist forward intending to break the other teen's nose. Unfortunately for the slayer, before his fist could meet the other's face, and unseen force flung him back and away from Cardin. Flipping himself over to land on his feet, Natsu turned to in the direction the energy had come from, only to come face to face with the scowling face of Glynda Goodwitch.

"Mr. Xiao Long, I hope you know that we do not condone the unprovoked assault of fellow students in this school." She told him angrily.

Natsu in turn scoffed at the blond woman's attempt to frighten and chastise him, she wasn't as scary as Erza, nor did she hold the same respect that he gave to Master Makarov. "Hell of a double standard you got there then, how about you cut the crap and just tell everyone the truth and say that you don't condone the assault of _humans_ here Goodwitch." He told the professor, causing her scowl to deepen.

"What are you implying?" She demanded

"Exactly what I said." Natsu told her, holding up his right hand with his palm facing up the wizard summoned a purple fire, the same fire that Macao always used. As soon as the flames were lit, three tendrils split from the source and flew around the cafeteria, each one grabbing an unseen target. As soon as he felt his fire finish grabbing those he wanted, Natsu grabbed the fire in his hand and pulled it as if it were a rope causing the three people he had captured to be yanked from their spots around the room and be thrown on the floor between him and the deputy headmistress of Beacon academy revealing them to be other teachers employed by the school.

"All four of you saw what Cardin was doing just now, hell you people have seen him harassing almost every Faunus in the whole school since day one. Don't even try to deny it I _saw_ you. Not once did you do anything, in fact most of the teachers did all they could to turn a blind eye. So tell me again _what_ exactly don't you _condone_ here _Professor?_ " Natsu accused, the altercation now having the undivided attention of the whole room, something Goodwitch noticed.

While it was true that the staff was aware of team CRDL's actions, they had decided to turn a blind eye not because they approved of the team's actions, but because they couldn't risk being labeled as supporters for either side, be they the White Fang and the Faunus, or racial supremacists like Cardin Winchester and his team. "I assure you, Mr. Winchester would have been dealt with and punished without your intervention." The blond professor said, trying to save face.

Her answer however only seemed to anger Natsu even more, "I thought I said to cut the crap. If I hadn't stepped in you would have done nothing, and would have _continued_ to do nothing until this asshole either ended up maiming, killing, or raping someone or one of his victims snapped and decided to attack _him_ in turn, and I think we both know who would have been punished if that happened, don't we?" Let it be known that Natsu Dragneel Xiao Long did _not_ like people hurting others without just cause, or those in charge letting people get away with a crime. Heck, even _he_ hated getting away with breaking rules, he always accepted his punishment when he did something against the law, he couldn't tell you how many hours he spent repairing the damage he caused in his battles during his first life. ( **AN: For those of you thinking about the time Erza got arrested and Natsu barged into her trial, he doesn't see what they were charging her for as a crime. Ever hear the phrase 'that which is necessary is legal'? It's the reason people who kill in self-defense aren't charged with murder.)**

Seeing that the red eyed teen's comment had caused the other student to begin to give their own looks of anger to her and the other teachers, Glynda Goodwitch thought that it was time they brought this conversation somewhere more private, "I think you should come with me to the headmaster's office Mr. Xiao Long, and you as well Mr. Winchester."

While hearing this caused Cardin to pale, Natsu himself only smirked at the woman across from him, "Sure, there are some things I wanted to ask him about anyway." Natsu told her, following the woman as she lead the two out of the cafeteria, leaving several hundred students with several new things to talk about, along with three freshman teams filled with worry.

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 **Okay lots of stuff happened this chapter, the highlights being that Natsu now knows that a magic user is being kept at Beacon, and now he is going to be seeing Ozpin while being pissed at him and his school staff so sorry all you people who want the two to get along but that won't happen for a while yet.**

 **Also, starting next chapter Linked Chains will be this story's beta so everyone be sure to check him out as a way of thanking him for doing this.**

 **Be sure Follow, Favorite (Almost number 2 of the RWBY/FT crossovers) and of course Review!**

 **Wingd Knight out.**


	12. Chapter 11

**Sorry for the massive delay, my wifi has been down.**

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As Glynda Goodwitch led her two students to her friend and boss' office, she couldn't help but wonder how things got the way they did. Beacon Academy was supposed to be the shining light of Remnant, where future protectors where trained and all souls were treated as equals, yet here she was escorting two of her students to the Headmaster's office one for his attacks on others and one for protecting them when it happened.

If she were being honest with herself, Glynda knew she didn't want to be bringing the pink haired boy along to what could very well be a notification of expulsion, but she also couldn't give the boy any special treatment, he had attacked a fellow student and therefor had to be punished. _Then why are you only bothering to bring in Winchester now?_ A dark voice in her head asked her in a patronizing way. Cardin Winchester was not an exceptional student by any means, his grades in traditional subjects such as history and science were barely passing and in courses like her own Combat class he never truly stood out, the only reason many thought he was among the strongest of the first years was because he only ever spared against those he knew were significantly weaker than him; namely one Jaune Arc.

In fact there were only two reasons that the mace user left any sort of blip on the radars of Beacon's teaching staff. One was of course his severe racism against Faunus which they had to regrettably let him get away with both to avoid the possible scandal that could arise should Beacon be seen as taking a side in the rather sensitive topic, and because of the second reason Cardin Winchester was on the staff's watch list; the boy's family. While the Winchesters weren't as big a name the Schnee or even the Arcs, they _were_ a fairly wealthy family, with both political clout and a long history. If word were to get out that one of their own was expelled from a Huntsmen academy and could face serious criminal charges for assault the family could cause backlash on Beacon that could lead to not only Ozpin's forced retirement but also a withdrawal of funding and support from the government.

Stepping into the elevator with her students Glynda couldn't help but realize just how right Natsu had been, they very well could have simply left Cardin to continue his harassment of his fellow trainees and would have only interfered if and when he caused someone permanent harm had the fire user not called them out on their inaction, now though they were placed in a damned if they do damned if they don't situation. Should they continue to ignore team CRDL's actions they would in turn upset the rest of the student body, especially the Faunus and those close to them while also sending the message that they supported the racism that the team displayed. However if they took the action which was due and expelled the team they would upset the Winchesters and in turn the Valiean government which could very well cripple the school.

Glynda stepped out of the elevator as the doors opened mentally preparing how she would deal with her two students and hoping that her friend and boss doesn't decide to implement any of his more… unorthodox, ideas on how to deal with the matter. She really wanted to forget about the time he sent that team with internal dating problems to spend a week in the Emerald Forest to 'learn to trust each other again'. Long story short days one through four were spent with the four of them yelling at each other so loud you could hear it from the school along with an absurd amount of collateral damage when fighting the Grimm that plagued the forest. As for days five, six, and seven… a… different, kind of screaming was heard from the team. Suffice to say Ozpin thought it was a huge success, even if they did have to turn off all the security cameras in the forest for the last three days.

 _How that man can possibly be the head of one of if not the most important secret organization in all of Remnant is beyond me, but I can't deny that he is good at what he does._ Goodwitch thought to herself as she saw the man in question look up from his work to see who had entered his office.

The man's face, which had previously held a look of exhaustion and intense boredom from filling out the immeasurable amount of paperwork running Beacon generated, hardened when he caught sight of just who was standing before him. Ozpin had yet to uncover any evidence that Natsu Xiao Long was part of the group that attacked the Fall Maiden, but that by no means meant that he was about to start trusting the boy, not only did he have some way to exponentially increase the power of his Aura for an unknown amount of time, but he also possessed an incredibly powerful and _versatile_ Semblance that could very well be boosted by the stolen power from Amber Autumn. And even if the fire user wasn't in possession of Amber's stolen power, he was still an incredibly talented fighter that he didn't know the limits or full abilities of which made him a dangerous unknown as far as Ozpin was concerned, and Ozpin hated unknowns.

"Ah Glynda, what can I do for you?" Ozpin asked the blond woman as she led both Xiao Long and another student that Ozpin only just noticed due to his initial focus on the pink haired boy. _The crest shows that he is part of the Winchester family, so this must be the new student that's been bullying Faunus. I guess the young man's actions finally brought someone to their breaking point,_ he rationalized in his head.

"Professor Ozpin," she started. _Ah, we're being fully professional then._ "Roughly ten minutes ago, I had to step in and prevent what promised to be a rather heated unsanctioned fight between Misters Xiao Long and Winchester in the cafeteria. As you know I would normally have dealt them their punishment right then and there, however given the nature of the potential fight's cause, I thought it prudent that I bring them here for you to pass judgment on their actions personally." Glynda explained to the Headmaster with a no nonsense tone and a serious gaze.

"I see," Ozpin said while locking his fingers together in front of his mouth, "And may I ask just what the cause was?" He asked his deputy.

Instead of answering right away, Glynda half turned to the side and gave the two boys a hard look before looking back at her boss, "It would seem that Mr. Winchester had been spending his lunch period mocking a fellow student namely a Bunny Faunus by the name of Velvet Scarlatina. It was when his actions escalated into physical contact with the intention to hurt Ms. Scarlatina that Mr. Xiao Long decided to intervene. However instead of seeking out one of the staff to reprimand Mr. Winchester he decided it would be better to attempt to break his nose by punching him in the face, but I was able to stop Mr. Xiao Long before it came to that." She reported.

"You forgot to mention the fact that you and three other teachers had been watching Cardin for a good twenty minutes before I stepped in." Xiao Long spoke up from his spot behind the deputy Headmistress. With his hands folded behind his head and the patronizing tone he used the boy could have easily passed as Qrow's son instead of Taiyang's. _Qrow reproducing, now that's a scary thought._

"I see." Ozpin said to no one in particular, "While it is obvious that Mr. Winchester will be receiving full punishment for his actions, the question is how to deal with Mr. Xiao Long's own… Very well, Mr. Winchester you will be serving four nights of detention with Professor Goodwitch and will write a formal apology to Ms. Scarlatina for your actions. As for you Mr. Xiao Long, you will accompany Mr. Winchester to his first two evenings of detention and are required to reread the sections of Beacon's student handbook that deal with duels and bullying. Now return to your classes and be sure to be at Professor Goodwitch's classroom at seven tonight for your detentions. Dismissed." He told the two boys, ignoring Winchester's smug look at how lightly he got off.

"Actually there was something else I wanted to talk to you about while I was here." Xiao Long informed him with a look that told the older man that he wouldn't take no for an answer.

Curious about what the martial artist wanted to discuss but still weary of the threat he may pose, Ozpin nodded his head slightly in response. "Very well. Mr. Winchester if you would leave us now, and Glynda please stay, your input may be needed." As Winchester left the room with his usual arrogant gate and Glynda took her spot behind him Ozpin's eyes never left Xiao Long's. "Well Mr. Xiao Long-" here he was cut off.

"Natsu." The boy told him.

"Excuse me?"

"Don't call me Mr. Xiao Long, I don't want to be called a _mister_ till I have kids, makes me feel old. Just call me Natsu, or Fire Dragon, or Salamander. Whichever one you prefer." Xia- Natsu told him.

Mentally filing the name 'Salamander' away for later study, Ozpin began again. "Very well… Salamander, what was it that you wanted to talk to me about?" he questioned the teen.

"Below the school" Already Ozpin was tense, "I feel something-some _one_ … broken for a lack of a better word. I don't suppose you could tell me what it is?"

 _Well this just about confirms my suspicions._ "I'm afraid I don't know what you could be talking about Salamander, the only things below the school are the long term storage rooms and as far as I am aware, nothing that is kept there is broken, or alive for that matter." Ozpin lied through his teeth, his expression and tone never changing.

Given the look on the pink haired boy's face, he wasn't buying it. "Alright then Headmaster, if you're sure. I would suggest checking it out though, I'm not usually wrong about these kind of things. Shame too, if you had known what it was we could have worked together on helping them. I know my fair share of things when it comes to healing such _deep rooted_ injuries like I felt they had." He told him.

Ozpin nodded, "Very well I will be sure to check up on your… concerns for an injured party beneath the school. Now I believe you have class, Salamander."

With a nod of his own, the boy left the Headmaster's office, leaving him and Glynda alone.

Glynda looked at him with worry clear in her eyes, "Ozpin, how did they find her? I thought it was impossible to track Amber through her Aura in her condition and we made sure there were no bugs on her when we brought her in!"

Bowing his head, Ozpin seemed to age a decade in a single instant, "I don't know Glynda, but Mr. Xiao Long, or Salamander as he prefers, was obviously involved in locating her and he knows about the damage that was done to her Aura. This is bad, Qrow and Taiyang have bragged about the boy enough that we know he is unnaturally skilled, and his younger sister has confirmed that he not only has been known to vanish for several days or even weeks at a time, but that his Semblance is far more diverse than it should be for an element based ability."

His words only increased Glynda's anxiety, a skilled and powerful combatant was right in front of them and they had no idea if he was friend, foe, or a neutral with some kind of sensing ability. Given what they know it is almost guaranteed that the boy was an enemy, but Glynda wasn't going to put all her eggs in that basket until she proof with her own eyes.

"Should I call the boy's father and uncle?" She asked Ozpin.

Heaving a great sigh Ozpin gave the affirmative, "Might as well, at this point we want all our bases covered and between the two of them we should be able to learn enough about him to be able to come up with a counter measure against him."

Nodding her head silently, the green eyed woman took out her scroll and began to write a message to the two men- asking them to come to Beacon to discuss their son/nephew and some concerns that they have about him. Hitting send Glynda couldn't help but giving a sigh of her own, they were about to tell two of the strongest huntsmen in Vale that they thought one of their own family members was part of an inter-kingdom crime group that has set out with the goal of destroying everything humanity has built and achieved. This would not be pretty.

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 **Hey everybody, like I said my wifi has been down for the last few weeks which is the cause of this delay, but it's back up so... here ya go.**

 **In this chapter we see the punishments officially given by the school to Cardin and Natsu, we also see some of the political stuff that's going on and gives the Beacon staff some redemption for their inaction toward Cardin's bullying. We also see Natsu trying to offer his help in regards to Amber Autumn, but since he doesn't know all the details of how she ended up in her current state, he has made himself sound like a possible enemy. Remember, Natsu knows about magic and Acnologia but he is as in the dark as everyone else about the Maidens, Cinder, and Celiam.**

 **On another not: this story has reached the #2 spot on the RWBY FT crossovers! I know its not a big category or anything, but its still an accomplishment. Now how about we see if we can make it to #1?**

 **READ, FAVORITE, AND REVIEW!**

 **Wingd Knight out.**


	13. Chapter 12

**Right like I said over the next few days (and by that I mean by Saturday) three new chapters for Reborn Dragon will be posted. Here's the first one.**

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"Ok Oz, what's this about?" Qrow Branwen, a man with grey black hair, red eyes and thin scruffy beard asked the Headmaster.

The day before he and his brother-in-law Taiyang Xiao Long had gotten a message from Glynda telling them that Ozpin needed to talk to them about something right away. To Qrow it sounded like it had something to do with the Maidens. To Taiyang, who didn't know of the Maidens' existence, it sounded like his children were in serious trouble.

Both were right.

"Natsu." Ozpin told them to their shock, "I need you two to tell me everything you know about his powers, skills, and personality." He told the two men with utmost seriousness.

After regaining his bearings, Taiyang was quick to ask the headmaster why he needed to know such things.

With a sigh the grey haired man began to explain, "As Qrow already knows several months ago one of… my inner circle was attacked. This in itself is not the problem however, after all allies of mine do tend to be in danger more often than not. No the problem is what was done to her, you see somehow whoever attacked her was able to steal a part of her soul and likely would have gotten all of it had Qrow not intervened."

Here Qrow cut him off, "What does any of that have to do with Natsu? He's not being targeted is he?" The red eyed man asked, his brother-in-law still too shocked about the idea of someone stealing another's soul to form words.

"No, Natsu is not being targeted." Ozpin told them causing both of the other men to give sighs of relief, "Unfortunately I called you here for the exact opposite reason. I believe that Natsu may have had something to do with it." Ozpin told the two of them with the utmost seriousness.

"WHAT?!" Taiyang yelled, "How the _hell_ could my son be involved with something like _that?_ What even _gave_ you such a crazy idea?!" The blond demanded of the headmaster.

Ozpin however was not fazed by the other man's outburst, he had expected it after all. "The one who was attacked, a woman named Amber Autumn, is currently being kept under the school in a secret chamber where she is receiving specialized medical attention to keep her alive." The white haired man calmly explained, "The number of people who should even know of the attack number only a half dozen outside of the ones who committed it. Natsu is not among those that I told yet he has made it clear that he somehow knows not only about Amber being kept beneath the school, but also about her condition. Your youngest has already told me that your son has been known to disappear for days or even weeks on end in the past, I am merely drawing what conclusions I can from the presented evidence and that evidence points to Natsu being involved with the group that tried to steal Amber's soul and is therefore a threat to not only the school but all of Remnant." Ozpin told the angry father.

Before Taiyang could move to strangle the headmaster for accusing his son of such a thing he felt a hand on his shoulder holding him back. Turning his head, Taiyang saw his brother-in-law looking at Ozpin with an expression of barely suppressed rage, "Oz, we've known each other for a long time. We've fought together, bled together, and damn near died together more times than I'd care to remember." The normally cocky sounding man reminded his friend with uncharacteristic seriousness, "It is only because of that that I'm not making a move to break your jaw for what you're accusing my nephew of right now. However you better have a better reason to think like that than 'he knows something he shouldn't'. Natsu has shown time and time again that he has unparalleled Aura sensitivity, I suspect it's due to him feeling the emotions of others through his Semblance that he is as good as he is, and from what you've told us the only thing Natsu seems to be guilty of is being able to tell someone has a damaged Aura which is no grounds to accuse him of being some kind of terrorist." Qrow told the hazel eyed man, his own eyes hard as steel and promising pain.

Leaning back in his chair, Ozpin gazed back at his old friend with calm eyes that silently told how little he actually feared the men in front of him, though weather it was from confidence in his own power or belief that the two of them wouldn't strike him for whatever reason was unclear.

After several seconds of tense silence Ozpin let out a long drawn out sigh. Pressing several buttons on his touch screen desk the headmaster brought up the video feed of the now teams RWBY, JNPR, and Natsu fighting the Deathstalker and Giant Nevermore during initiation several weeks prior, along with Natsu's Aura readings of the time. Gesturing for his guests to watch the video Ozpin began to explain, "As you may have heard during initiation this year nine students were forced to fight two A-ranked Grimm. If you look at Natsu's Aura levels at the before and during the fight you will notice that they jumped when he engaged the Deathstalker and stayed at a level _far_ beyond his original reserves through his fight with the Giant Nevermore." Ozpin told the two, "I don't think I need to tell you that such a thing is _not_ normal by any means. Not only that, but the energy he gave off during the fight had a passing resemblance to Amber Autumn's own." He said.

Not taking his eyes off the video Taiyang still spoke to defend his son, though things looked bad even to him, "What explanation did my son give for this?" He asked his superior.

"Natsu- or Salamander as he likes to be called- stated his supposed belief that our instruments merely picked up on his Aura reacting with Dust of the same nature as his Semblance and mistakenly presented the power of the reaction as his reserves." Ozpin informed him.

"And what are the chances of that being true?" Qrow asked not wanting to believe his nephew could be associated with Amber's attackers

"If the rise in power was only momentary, roughly 6%. However seeing as the increase in power remained for almost half an hour? Next to imposable." Ozpin stated.

Taiyang shook his head and leaned back in his seat, "No there has got to be another explanation. I know my son and I trust him, he would never do something like that. Beat someone to a pulp sure, but to try and steal an innocent woman's soul? No way in hell. The power boost was probably just his Semblance causing feedback to the Aura scanners, or the scanners themselves were faulty."

"And how exactly would Salamander's Semblance cause feedback?" Ozpin questioned the blond.

It was Qrow however that answered him, "Natsu's Semblance is called 'The Flames of Emotion' they feed off both his Aura and his current feelings for power and effect. Normal fire only burns things, Natsu however can use his desires for different things to change the effect of his flames to better suit whatever situation he finds himself in. It was probably his desire for strength along with his fear for his sisters and anger for the Grimm attacking him that caused his Semblance to spike like that, the feedback caused by his emotions being read alongside his Aura- like I said he uses both to fuel his Semblance." Qrow told him. He of course didn't know that the only thing 'The Flames of Emotion' actually did was act as a way to increase his nephew's power and that the change of his flames aspects really _were_ magic like Ozpin had silently been trying to convey to him.

"You will have to forgive me if I remain skeptical of such a thing." Ozpin said, "It is one thing for someone's emotions to cause higher activation of their Semblance- your eldest for example- but to actually increase the levels of Aura that they possess? That just doesn't seem possible."

"And being able to steal someone else's soul is?" Taiyang demanded, "You're basing all of your suspicions on the fact that my son was able to beat some high level Grimm and displayed a skill he has been using since he was a child. What reason would Natsu even have for wanting one of your inner circle's soul?"

Here Qrow and Ozpin exchanged brief glances, Taiyang didn't know about the Maidens, heck he didn't even know the legend about the Silver Eyed Warrior's despite his late wife and youngest child's possibility of being one. Should they tell him the truth, that Natsu could be working with someone to steal the powers of the Maidens the power of magic? Or do they play ignorant and come up with some other reason for committing such an act?

In the end Ozpin decided to go with the second option. "I do not know for sure, but you can't deny that the world is changing. The White Fang is growing more and more violent with each passing day, crime lords like Roman Torchwick are appearing for the first time since the Faunus War, Atlas showing far too many signs that point to them preparing for war. It is possible that your son has joined another group and they are amassing power in whatever way they can, do not let your blood ties blind you from the possibilities Taiyang."

The albino's words only seemed to anger the father of three, "And do not let your paranoia blind _you_ Ozpin. There have been countless huntsmen in the past who demonstrated that they have more power than they should have- hell most Arcs' have more than twice the Aura of other huntsmen, and some of them even more! What is to say that Natsu is just exhibiting some bloodline trait like the Arcs or the Schnees?" Taiyang asked him.

"Are you referring to that old story you used to brag about in school? About being descended from dragons?" Ozpin asked in turn.

"Is it really so hard to believe? Every generation we can trace back in the Xiao Long family there has been at least one person with a fire based Semblance or super strength one. My father had one, my brother had one, and both my eldest children have one." Taiyang stated.

"Then do you also believe that the Arcs are descended from Angles? Or that the Schnees from winter spirits? How about the Valkyries being descended from divine warriors of the gods?" Ozpin questioned the other man, "Many families have stories like yours Taiyang but they don't use theirs as excuses."

"Actually I'm pretty sure the Valkyries use theirs as an excuse to drink more booze." Qrow spoke up while taking a swing from his flask.

" _Thank you_ Qrow." Ozpin groaned. "But that doesn't change the fact that you are hiding behind old stories and legends to try and defend you son Taiyang."

"And it also doesn't change the fact that you have no proof that my son did anything wrong." Taiyang retorted.

For several long seconds the two men stared at each other with hard gazes as if daring the other to start the argument once more. After almost a minute Ozpin finally leaned back with a sigh, "Very well, I will make no move against your son until such a time that I am sure he is indeed in league with those in charge with Amber's attack. I will however be keeping a close watch on him for any signs that he was involved." Ozpin told his guests.

While Taiyang did not look happy about such an arrangement- most likely due to Ozpin still believing the worst of his son- he nodded his consent all the same. It was the best he'd be getting from the headmaster.

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 **Right so we got the meeting between Ozpin, Qrow, and Taiyang over Ozpin's suspicions of Natsu, hope it lived up to your expectations. If anyone sees any errors in this chapter that is my fault, I only sent my beta the first part of this chapter for corrections so I could get it posted faster. Sorry about that.**

 **Now some other things I want to say: 1) For those of you reading my other not shit story 'Dragon of the Hearth' you will be pleased to know I will be posting an update for it some time this week along with the other two updates I promised for this story. For those of you not reading it, please check it out and throw in a review if you can.**

 **2)Over my time reading stories on this site I have read stories that I really liked until the author threw in something that just made me hate the thing, and I'm sure many of you reading this have had similar experiences. In light of this I'm going to try an experiment: A completely fan choice story. On my profile there is a pole where you can cast three votes, the winner of this pole will have another pole set up with plot ideas for a story in that category and the winner of that will have its story posted. Now here's the catch, after every chapter a new pole will be put up where all of those who bother to vote can help choose what course the story will take, the winning choice of each pole will be how the next chapter plays out. Of course there are some restrictions: the choices I put in the poles are the only choices you can choose from, meaning no PM or review requests or suggestions, and it will be a _Side Project only_ until such a time that I either finish this story or it overtakes this one as my most popular so updates will be infrequent. What do you all think of that? (That was rhetorical, if you like the idea vote if not just enjoy what comes out of it.)**

 **Now that that is all said all that is left is to:**

 **READ AND _REVIEW!_**

 **Wingd Knight out.**


	14. Chapter 13

**Kinda short, but it gives a good transition. Please go vote on my poll if you have not already.**

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During the Faunus Rights Revolution- more popularly known as the Faunus War- mankind was quite, quite adamant about centralizing Faunus population in Menagerie. Now! While this must feel like ancient history to many of you, it is imperative to remember that these are relatively recent events. Why the reproductions of the uprising can still be seen to this day." Professor- sorry, _Doctor_ Oobleck lectured his class as he zipped around the room before taking a long sip of his coffee.

 _That cannot be healthy._ Natsu thought to himself from his seat next to Jaune, the blond passed out in his own chair. Not that Natsu could blame the guy, he had driven Jaune into the ground over the past few days since the incident in the lunchroom so it was understandable that the blond was tired. _There really isn't much more I can teach him considering his fighting style,_ Natsu thought. _Maybe I can convince Pyrrha to take over his training, she knows how to use a sword and shield combination._ While Natsu had been able to teach Jaune enough that he wouldn't fall over his own two feet and could now properly swing his sword, Natsu only ever learned to use a sword, never a shield and certainly not both at the same time so there really wasn't much he could teach Jaune in the way of swordsmanship unless he gave up his shield, which the knight was unwavering in his refusal to do so.

"Now!" The green haired Doctor continued, "Have any among you been subjected or discriminated because of your Faunus heritage?" He questioned the assembled students.

Behind him Natsu heard the rustle of someone raising their hand in confirmation, and after several seconds saw the bunny Faunus that he had helped in the cafeteria several days ago raise her hand as well.

"Dreadful, simply dreadful. Remember students it is precisely this kind of ignorance that breaths violence." Their teacher told them, once more drinking from his cup of coffee. "I mean, I mean, I mean, just look at what happened to the White Fang! Now which one of you young scholars can tell me what many theorists believe to be the turning point in the third year of the war?" Oobleck asked his class.

Weiss immediately raised her hand to answer. "Yes?" Oobleck called to her.

"The battle of Fort Castle." Weiss said with just a smidge of smugness. _That's a stupid name for a fort… err, castle_.

"Precisely!" Oobleck confirmed. "And who can tell me the advantage the Faunus had over General Lagoon's forces?" Oobleck asked as a follow up while Cardin flicked a paper football at the back of Jaune's head, which Natsu promptly caught and burned without turning his head away from the teacher.

"Hey!" Cardin protested the interruption of his fun. Too bad for him Doctor Oobleck heard him and zipped right over to the teen.

"Mister Winchester! Finally contributing to class, this is excellent, excellent!" Oobleck cheered while raising his cup slightly in joy. "What is the answer?" Oobleck probed his orange haired student.

Startled by the sudden spotlight he was placed in, Cardin took a moment to gather his wits before replying, "Well, I know it's a lot easier to train an animal than a solider." Cardin said in a blatant showing of his racism. Oobleck did not look amused.

 _I cannot wait for the day a Faunus kicks his sorry ass, or better yet saves it._ Natsu thought to himself while glaring at the taller teen, it seemed the detentions he had spent with Professor Goodwith cleaning bloodstains off the practice arenas' floors hadn't done anything to make the jerk less of a jackass.

"You're not the most open minded of individuals, are you Cardin?" Pryyha asked her fellow student condescendingly.

"What you got a problem?" Cardin challenged in an attempt to look tough, the fact that he was trying to intimidate one of the deadliest people in the school, student or staff, seemed to be lost on him. **(AN: I would put Pyrrha just below Oobleck and Port, who are below Goodwitch and her, Ozpin. So in cannon I think Pyrrha was the 4** **th** **deadliest Beacon resident… maybe a bit lower, but definitely top 10.)**

"No, I have the answer." Pyrrha told him before turning back to the front to answer Oobleck's question. "It's night vision." She stated, "Many Faunus are known to have nearly perfect sight in the dark." She continued before Blake picked up, ignoring Cardin's growl of irritation.

"General Lagoon was inexperienced and made the mistake of trying to ambush the Faunus in their sleep." Blake explained, "His massive army was outmatched and the General was captured." She said to the improvement of her teacher who nodded his head as she told her fellow students the reasons behind the General's defeat.

Turning her head to face Cardin, the secret Cat Faunus couldn't help but throw a jab in at the racist team leader with the opportunity presented to her, "Perhaps if he had payed attention in class he wouldn't have been remembered as such a failure." She finished in mocking tone directed at the male.

Angered at the comment, Cardin stood up with another growl, this one significantly louder than the one that came before it, and fist clenched moved to take a step in the two girl's direction, only to be cut off by Oobleck's exasperated voice. "Mister Winchester, please take your seat." The glasses wearing man told his charge before turning to face Jaune and his not so quite giggles at the other teen's expense, "I wouldn't laugh if I were you Mr. Arc, while you are not failing my class you certainty aren't my best student either." Jaune wisely stopped laughing and kept silent. "Mr. Winchester, please see me after class for additional readings." Oobleck told the bulky team leader. "Now! Moving on!"

 _Mavis this class is annoying…_

Twenty minutes later Natsu walked beside Jaune and his team as they left the hyped up doctor's classroom, "Thanks again Natsu for all the help you've been giving me, you too Pyrrha." Jaune told his two friends. A few days into the school year the two of them learned that while Jaune was gifted in a good deal of his classes, he was lacking in the combat and history departments and since he was already helping Jaune with the former Natsu had decided to help tutor Jaune in history as well with the added help of Pyrrha who knew more about history than anyone else in their group of nine, except Blake.

"It's no problem Jaune." Pyrrha assured her leader, "We're glad to help in any way we can."

"I am so glad you said it like that Pyrrha." Natsu told his friend as he draped an arm over the redhead's shoulders, "You see as you know I've been giving Jaune some help in his combat abilities. Thing is there really isn't much left I can teach him, my skills are centered around unarmed combat not swordsmanship. So I was wondering if I could pass my burden unto you and have you teach Jaune how to use his sword and shield properly." He said.

"S-sure." Pyrrha replied, "Where and when do you guys usually train?"

Grinning Natsu grabbed her arm, "I'll show you, come on Jaune!" he called to the blond as he dragged the girl along.

"Hey Ren?" Nora asked her childhood friend and cough*secret*cough crush.

"Yes Nora?"

"Are they… together-together?"

"… I don't know."

The trio quickly made it to the roofs of Beacon that Natsu and Jaune had been using since the training grounds had been overrun by the upper years, "This is where we do most of our training." Natsu began to explain, "You can't do anything major up here but it's a good place to practice forms and do some light sparing."

While her friend talked Pyrrha looked around the area that she had been dragged to. It was part of Beacon's rooftops and was surrounded on three sides by higher parts of the buildings so there was little chance of being seen or of high winds inconveniencing them. The area itself was made of stone and was shaped like a rectangle roughly the size of the floor space of the dorms housed inside the school, maybe a little bigger.

All in all Pyrrha had to agree with Natsu's conclusion, it was good for basic training but nothing serious or destructive.

"So," Natsu inquired, "What do you think?"

"I think that this is a great place to practice swordsmanship but we'll have to find someplace else once Jaune discovers his Semblance." Pyrrha told them.

"Great!" Natsu said cheerfully, "How about we start next week? We got that field trip to Forever Fall in a few days that we got to get ready for and I should be able to finish up with the basics I'm drilling him in by then." He proposed.

"Sounds good to me. What about you Jaune? Any objections?" The Spartan asked the Knight. **(Just so people know, Pyrrha is based on Achilles who was** _ **not**_ **a Spartan but people call Pyrrha one so I'm just rolling with it.)**

"No, I'm good with that." The blond said nervously. If the torture that Natsu called training was just the basics, what would more advanced stuff be like?

Meanwhile Cardin was just meeting up with his team after being lectured by Oobleck about his poor grades in his class. "Stupid piece of shit." The buff teen grumbled, "This is all Xiao Long's fault."

"So? What are you gonna do about it?" Russel asked his leader, "The guy's at the top of our year in combat so it's not like we could just jump him."

Grabbing the shorter boy by the collar of his shirt Cardin pulled his teammate off the ground, "What you think that pink haired asshole is stronger than me? I could kick his ass with my eyes closed if given the chance!" He said angrily.

Sky was quick in trying to appease the angry teen, "Calm down man, he just meant that it would take too long to beat him, not that you couldn't. We don't want Goodwitch to find out after all." He lied, he knew there was no way Cardin could beat Natsu just like Sky himself couldn't beat Cardin. "We'll just have to find some other way to pay the guy back."

Luckily for Russel Sky's words were able to calm Cardin down enough to let go of his collar. Russel's sense of relief quickly left him however when he saw the crazed look in his leader's eyes.

"You know what Sky? You're right. I've got a much better idea to nock that bastard down a peg or two. Where did you say that Rapier Wasp nest you saw was Dove?" He questioned his last teammate.

"Er, the east wing, just off the training fields. Why?"

Cardin's grin grew wider, "Simple, we're gonna give the forest a surprise bug infestation."

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 **Right, like I said it's kind of short, but it gives a good set up for the Forever Fall episodes starting next chapter, so that's good.**

 **If you are one of the MANY people who have yet to vote on the poll currently up on my profile please do so. Currently RWBY is in the lead with 18 votes followed by Crossover and Fairy Tail with 15 each. I'll be honest I didn't think these three would be the ones getting all the votes but seeing as most of the people who would bother to vote are doing so because of a RWBY FT crossover I really shouldn't be surprised. But you guys do know I can do other things right?**

 **Moving on, this was the second out of 3 chapters that will be posted this week for this story so you can expect another around Friday that will be a good bit longer than this one.**

 **Until then,**

 **READ AND REVIEW (Reviews longer than 4 words are** **appreciated)**

 **Wingd Knight out.**


	15. Chapter 14

**Not my best work, but I got in that third update I promised this week.**

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"*Groan* My… everything hurts." Jaune moaned as he lay spread-eagled in his bed. He had been learning under both Natsu and Pyrrha for almost a week now after all and he honestly couldn't say who was a more hellish teacher, his redheaded partner or the pink haired fire user.

Natsu's lessons were longer and made him use every part of his body constantly with very little rest, but while Pyrrha focused mainly on more stationary methods, she actually had to _hit_ him to train him, and she hit _hard._ And they haven't even begun using swords yet!

"Oh don't be so grumpy fearless leader!" Nora happily exclaimed as she jumped on her bed, "We have a field trip tomorrow, meaning no classes! Isn't that great?!" She told him backfliping into a lying position of her own.

"It's not a free day Nora," Ren reminded her, "we still have an assignment to complete while we're there."

Nora's reply was cut off by a loud crash from across the hall, the third one that night.

"What are they _doing_ in there?" Nora couldn't help but ask.

"Natsu said something about family night." Pyrrha supplied, causing Ren to raise an eyebrow.

"Then why don't they have it in Natsu's room? He doesn't have roommates." He pointed out.

Blushing slightly Pyrrha stuttered out an answer, "W-well his room might not be exactly _clean_." She told him vaguely. In truth she and Natsu had tried incorporating chocolate sauce and whip cream into their last rendezvous and it got a little out of hand.

Despite Ren's climbing brow, Pyrrha refused to elaborate.

"Yes students, the forest of Forever Fall is indeed beautiful, but we are not here to sight see. Professor Peach has asked all of you to collect samples from the trees deep inside this forest. And I'm here to make sure none of you die while doing so." Professor Goodwitch told her students as she led them through the red forest known as Forever Fall.

The trees there were a special breed that produced a thick sap that could be used to make burn salves, rash cream, different kinds of ointment, or high quality syrup. The forest however was full of Grimm so collecting the sap was considered too dangerous for civilians to collect, hence why they were there. The majority of the sap they collected would be sold by the school to different companies for processing and the revenue would be funneled into the school.

At the back of the group Natsu and Jaune were carrying several jars and boxes of taps to use to collect the aforementioned sap, leaning over to whisper to the blond Natsu asked him, "How much you want a bet she does jack all the whole trip?"

Paling slightly Jaune tried to defend their teacher, "Oh come on Natsu, I'm sure she'll help us if we need it."

Rolling his eyes Natsu kept silent and continued walking. It was no secret to anyone at that point that Natsu wasn't too fond of the Beacon staff, a sentiment that was shared by many equalists after they found out the reason for the enmity the pinket showed some of the teachers.

"Each of you is to gather one jar's worth of red sap," Goodwitch continued, ignorant of the conversation between the two, "however, this forest is full of the creatures of Grimm so be sure to stay by your teammates. We will rendezvou back here at four o'clock. Have fun." She told them before walking off to Monty knows where.

"Come on guys!" Ruby called out, "Let's go get us some sap!" She said marching off.

Meanwhile team CRDL were going over their leader's plan for revenge, "Okay Dove you got the extra jar right?" Cardin asked.

"Yeah, I got it right here." Dove assured him.

"Good, as soon as those morons have some of their jars filled, throw it at them. Then we let the Wasps out and let them do the rest."

Sky however wasn't so sure, "Are we sure we want to do this? I mean Rapier Wasps are kinda poisonous, what if someone gets seriously injured? We'll get expelled for sure."

Cardin just snorted, "So what if one of them is hurt? That's the whole point! This will teach those bastards Xiao Long, Nikos, and Belladonna not to insult me." He growled, "And don't worry about being found out, they have no way to pin this on us, and even if they did I'm untouchable." He boasted.

Russel decided to play devil's advocate, "Um… what if someone dies?'

"Then they were too weak to be in this school." Cardin bluntly stated to the concern of his teammates. They knew Cardin wasn't the nicest of guys, but to be so passé about potentially causing someone's death? This may have gotten a little out of hand. They were all for causing them pain and humiliation, but to kill them?

Before they had a chance to change their minds however, Cardin saw the perfect opportunity, "There, they got most of their sap collected, and that Valkyrie girl has plenty on her face Dove, hand me the jar." He told his teammate.

Casting aside his doubts, Dove handed his leader the extra jar of sap they collected before turning back to face the people who were responsible for humiliating team CRDL.

Natsu let out a sigh as he stood up with his freshly filled jar, it was tedious boring work, but he was finally done and from the looks of it so were the others… except Nora who seemed to have eaten all of hers. Natsu shook his head and held in a laugh, it was times like this, surrounded by family and friends that he was reminded of his time in Fairy Tail doing small miscellaneous jobs to help Lucy pay her rent.

Before he could walk to far down memory lane, Natsu felt something hit him in the back. It didn't hurt as his Aura and Dragon Scales had shielded him from the blow but he still felt something sticky clinging to his back. Something that smelled oddly sweet.

 _Did someone just throw a jar of sap at me?_ Looking around to see if he could find the one who threw the jar at him, Natsu was able to make out team CRDL on the top of a small rise not far from where he and his friends were collecting their sap. _I must have let my guard down_ Natsu thought, there was no other way that Cardin of all people could have snuck up on him, he didn't have the Aura or the emotional control to sneak past his sensory abilities for even a second otherwise.

Before he could ponder it any farther though Natsu saw something that made his blood run cold. Team CRDL had just opened a box full of Rapier Wasps, a breed of insect the size of his thumb and armed with long stingers that contained a venom that caused intense pain. A venom that his younger sister was highly allergic to. If Ruby got stung by any of those things, there was a good chance she would die.

"Yang, cover Ruby!" Natsu quickly called out to his twin.

"What? Why?" The blond asked as she turned to face him only to see the cause of his order for herself. "Shit!" She screamed dropping her jar of sap and running over to her little sister who was now petrified with fear. Ruby could face the biggest badist Grimm there were with barely a flinch but she had been terrified of wasps since the first time she got stung, an event that had her in a hospital bed for three days.

While Yang ran over to their sister Natsu lite his hands on fire in preparation of fighting the insects that luckily seemed to be focused mainly on him. _Good, if they all come after me that means Ruby won't get stung._ He thought as he punched the first bug with his flaming fist, killing it and sending its now burning body into the rest of its brethren.

Soon team JNPR as well as Weiss and Blake joined Natsu in fighting off the wasps. After seeing how violently he and Yang reacted to their presence, they knew it was bad even if they didn't know why.

Unfortunately other than Ren and Natsu no one was having much luck fighting the insects. The small size of their targets made them hard to hit with Blake, Jaune, Weiss, and Pyrrha's swords and they were too fast for Nora to hit them with her hammer. Only Ren using his weapons knife sized blades and Natsu with his burning fists were able to hit the wasps which were now spreading throughout the clearing after their forgotten jars of sap were knocked over in the confusion.

"Where did these things come from?" Ren asked in his ever controlled way of speaking, "I did not see a nest anywhere near here."

"It was Cardin," Natsu told them, "He let out a box full of these things after pelting me with a jar of sap." He explained.

"When this is over I'm gonna break his legs!" Nora declared once more swinging her hammer in an attempt to hit one of the wasps.

"I hate to be that guy," Jaune spoke up, "But why are you and Yang panicking so much about a bunch of wasps? I mean they hurt but it's not like they could kill ya." Jaune questioned.

"Because they _can_ kill Ruby." Natsu told him, "She's highly allergic to Rapier Wasp venom."

Hearing this caused those previously not in the know to pale. If even one of the wasps were to make it to the red themed girl her life was in serious danger.

The seven of them redoubled their efforts doing all they could to keep any wasps from getting past them, the few that did quickly taken care of by Yang. But it was a losing battle, with only three of their number able to touch the bugs one of which was more occupied trying to get her frozen sister to run and dozens of wasps doing all they could to get to the sources of the delicious smell that attracted them, they would be overrun within the next two minutes. Not helped by the fact that at this point they all had some amount of sap clinging to their clothes and bodies, both from collecting it and spilling it during their rush to help their friend.

 _Fuck this,_ Natsu thought, "Everyone get back!" Natsu called out. Not knowing why their red eyed friend was telling them to do such a thing but not questioning it, the six fighters quickly backpedaled behind the middle sibling.

Pulling his clenched fist back, Natsu pored all the power he could while in his sealed form into his fist. Then in one straight punch unleased all of it in a blazing inferno like he had done to defeat Fiore's 'strongest' guild all those years ago.

The effect was more than he could hope for. The turret of fire engulfed every wasp that had been swarming them, the flying insects too slow to escape the fast moving flames, and thanks to Natsu's increased control the forest didn't catch fire which was a bonus.

Panting heavily from the strain of using so much energy in his sealed state Natsu couldn't help the grin that slowly overtook his face. "Ha! Showed those little turds whose boss!" He cheered while the others stared at him with slightly widened eyes. Sure they had seen him do far more impressive feats during initiation, but that was with the aid of Dust (as far as they knew) _this_ however was purely his own power and he just produced a blast of fire strong enough to sing their arm hair from several feet away!

They were broken from their shock by Yang's terrified cry, "Oh Monty, RUBY!" She cried. Turning to face her everyone instantly saw what had caused her to scream, and felt a deep sense of fear grip their hearts.

Ruby's skin was blotchy and discolored, her face and throat badly swollen and she was sweating profusely. She had been stung.

"SHIT!" Natsu screamed running up to his sisters, "Yang where's her epipen?" He demanded.

"I don't know!" She panicked, "I checked her pouches and I couldn't find it!"

Swearing profusely, Natsu quickly dug through his sisters pouches himself trying to find her medicine and praying to Mavis that Yang had just missed it in her panic.

"Damn it, damn it, DAMN IT! Where in the name of Mavis is her damn pen?!" **(For those of you thinking his reaction is too much, remember that his little sister is currently on a ticking clock dying in front of him)**

Unable to find it Natsu began to panic just as much as his twin, there was no way they could get Ruby back to Beacon in time to get her spar pen and even less of a chance to get her to a hospital in Vale.

 _Wait a minute, we don't need a hospital._

Bringing his hands up in front of his face, Natsu clenched them tight and tried to concentrate despite his fear of losing his sister. "Come on come on come on." Natsu told himself, he had to do this, if he didn't Ruby would die.

Finally after what felt like an eternity, Natsu's hands erupted in soothing green flames, Healing Flames. As soon as he was sure that the fire wouldn't go out, Natsu gently placed his burning hands onto his sister's swollen neck.

"What are you doing?!" Weiss shrieked, "You're making it worse you imbecile!" She yelled at him, trying to yank him away from the clocked girl.

"I'm saving her life!" Natsu shouted back, shoving the short girl away from him with his shoulder, his hands never leaving his sisters now much smaller neck.

Before she could continue her rant Ren grabbed her shoulder, "He's right Weiss. Look, her swelling is going down." He pointed out. And indeed it was, not only had Ruby's face and neck gone back down to roughly their original size, but she was breathing easier as well.

Those present slumped in relief, she would live, she was going to be okay. _CRDL on the other hand_. Natsu thought turning his head to look at the four hiding teens _, won't be._

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 **Okay I don't really feel like giving a recap this chapter, so I'm not going to instead lets go straight into the other stuff.**

 **Due to me being reminded to take out that filler chapter from a few weeks back this is now labeled as the fifteenth chapter just like how the last one was before the deletion of the AN so I'm not sure if members will be able to review this chapter. If members can't and still want to leave a review (Please do) then they will either have to leave it under a different chapter and just say its for this one or log off and leave one that way (if you put your account name instead of 'Guest' I'll be sure to answer you through PM like I usually do).**

 **Also, the poll for the category for the fan choice story is now closed with RWBY winning, however due to how close the second option 'crossover' was there will also be crossover options in the next poll: The Plot. And before anyone asks, Mawaru Penguindrum's resident Yandere is a stalker... or so I'm told I never read the manga or watched the anime. Point is that option means Ruby is a stalker. Please take the time to cast your votes.**

 **Finally, for those of you who care, an update for 'Dragon of the Hearth' will be posted either before or on Saturday.**

 **Don't forget to Review,**

 **Wingd Knight out**

 **PS: I know this chapter wasn't the best, but please remember that this is the third one I posted for this story over the past 5 days so I didn't spend all that much time on it I just wanted to get it done. Thank you.**


	16. Chapter 15

**Holy crap this chapter was hard to write. Anyway here's what you've all been waiting for- Angry Natsu!**

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Up in their hiding spot, team CRDL watched as the two teams huddled around the fallen reaper catching glimpses of her condition as her friends panicked. Seeing the younger girl's serious condition caused Dove to freak out, "Oh shit Cardin! This isn't good, what if she dies? What if they find out we let those wasps out? Oh man they are going to KILL us!" he blustered.

"Shut up!" Cardin snapped back, "They have no way of knowing that we had anything to do with this, and if the girl dies that's not our problem. If she reacts like this to just one little sting than she shouldn't have gotten stung." He told his teammates.

"Uh, Cardin?" Russel spoke up, "Xiao Long's looking at us."

"What?!" Cardin demanded pushing the other boy aside to look himself, and sure enough, there was Natsu Xiao Long staring back at them and he did not look happy. Shit.

"Get moving you idiots!" Cardin hissed as he began to scramble away from the ledge, the look he saw in the pink haired boy's crimson eyes… it was like looking into the face of a monster, a beast, a… dragon.

Meanwhile back in the grove Natsu saw the four teens begin to run away after spotting him looking at them. Cowards, He thought, "Yang," Natsu called to his twin, "keep watch on Ruby till she wakes up. The rest of you, see if you can get enough sap for us to pass the assignment." He instructed.

"What about you?" Ren asked wearily.

"I'm going to go show Cardin what happens when you mess around with fire." Natsu replied ominously, no one noticing the tattoo like lines that began to climb up his arms.

Nora grinned darkly, "Break his legs!"

Team CRDL was running as fast as their legs could carry them. The look they saw in Natsu Xiao Long's eyes terrified them beyond belief, how could a mere man give such a look? It was like looking into the eyes of a demon far greater than any Grimm. They feared for their lives.

The team's escape was suddenly cut off by a wall of crimson flames springing up in front of them before turning around to encircle the four terrified teens trapping them in a cage of pure fire.

"Now where do you four think you're going?" A voice full of barely suppressed rage called out to them, "After all after you gave me and my friends such a _wonderful_ gift it would be rude if I didn't return the favor." The voice called out again, the shadow of the speaker taking form in the flames.

Sky, Russel, and Dove were frozen with fear. The very air around them was steaming with the intense heat of the fire entrapping them, they couldn't breathe, how had things gotten so out of hand? All they were doing was helping their leader get even with the one who humiliated him, but they ended up almost killing the youngest student in Beacon and were now facing some unknown demon. They saw their life flash before their eyes. This was it, they were going to die.

Cardin however did not feel the same sense of fear and dread. No, the only thing he felt was rage. He knew who was behind this, if the fire wasn't enough the bastard had pretty much spelled it out to them when he gave his little introduction. Natsu Xiao Long. The pink haired shit was the cause of his humiliation the past few weeks, people had begun to talk about how he was weak and that his position at the top of combat classes was due to him only fighting those even weaker than him. How was he supposed to rule the school and put those filthy Faunus in their place at the bottom if the other students didn't fear him? And it was all because of that one bastard who refused to just butt out and let him do what he will.

"Xiao Long!" Cardin yelled out, "Show your face you fucking bastard!" He bellowed brandishing his mace, face red with rage.

"As you wish." Natsu called back finally stepping out of the fire, shocking all four of team CRDL with his new appearance.

His hair had darkened becoming spiky and wild, his eyes now appeared to be the color of dried blood, his ears now pointed like an elf's, black lines snaked their way up his arms and across his chest and face, his nails took the form of claws and his teeth now as sharp and pointed as arrows. But the biggest change laid atop his head, where two thick horns a mix of midnight black and the same bloody color as his eyes had sprouted. If he had now been wearing his shirt they would have seen the lines twist along his chest to form three letters, spelling a name that had once struck fear into all who had heard it. E-N-D.

He truly looked like a demon.

"W-what the hell!?" Sky shrieked, "What are you?!"

"Me?" Natsu asked, "I'm the one you were stupid enough to target, the one who's family you almost killed, the one who is about to bathe you in flames hot enough to have come from hell itself." Natsu told them, slowly walking closer to the four of them. He wasn't kidding about the fire; he had learned that there were two types of cursed flames he could call upon. He called them the Fires of Armageddon, and the Flames of Hell.

The first one, the Fires of Armageddon, burned just as hot as his Dragon Fire but bypassed all but the most powerful forms of Magical Defenses and even those did little to protect the target of the garnet flames.

The other, the Flames of Hell, also bypass most forms of defense but they were incapable of doing any physical harm. The Flames of Hell were purely spiritual in nature, those who were consumed by them would feel their skin melting and their blood boiling, suffering through constant agony, but they would never die from it. In Earthland the fire would consume the victim's magic while they were tortured, but on Remnant One's Aura was the target. The fire would slowly burn their energy out of their bodies so that fighting them would only be harder, and even when the last drop of the victim's power had been burned away, the fires will continue to cling to their flesh like a parasite until E.N.D. himself chose to show them mercy else they would be doomed to live out the rest of their lives in agony, their nerves never numbing their minds never resting there would be no escape from the wine colored flames, save death.

It was these flames that he would be using, after all killing the four of them would just cause more trouble than they were worth.

"You think I'm afraid of you, freak!?" Cardin demanded, "You're no better than those filthy Faunus! Come on you bastard, I'm going to enjoy breaking your skull!"

E.N.D. only smirked at the threat, "So eager to start the fun, aren't you Cardin? But do you really think your puny little club can hurt me?" He taunted.

"I'll show you puny!" Cardin raged charging forward with his mace held high **.** Bringing his weapon down with both hands Cardin aimed for the other boy's skull a demented smile painting his face.

 _Fool,_ E.N.D. thought easily catching the descending weapon, the ease with which he did so shocking the orange haired teen.

"Didn't I tell you that your puny club couldn't hurt me?" E.N.D mocked Cardin. "Now it's my turn." E.N.D. lit his hand up with the Flames of Hell, "Burn." He said slamming his fist into Cardin's chest plate shattering the tempered steel like glass and covering his torso in the unworldly flames.

As soon as the cursed fire touched his skin Cardin's world was overcome by pure agony, it felt as if his very soul was being submersed into liquid steel. The pain was all consuming, he couldn't move, he couldn't see, think, or breath. He could only scream.

"Miss Goodwitch!" Yang called out to the blond woman, "Miss Goodwitch, help!" she yelled running up to the teacher, carrying her unconscious sister in her arms and her friends trailing behind her.

"Miss Xiao Long, what is the meaning of this?!" The deputy headmistress demanded after seeing the state of the red themed girl.

"She got stung by a Rapier Wasp and had an allergic reaction." Blake told the strict woman.

"How is that possible? I brought another class here just last week and there were no Rapier Wasp nests anywhere in the area."

"It was Cardin." Yang growled, "He and his team let a bunch loose near where we were collecting out sap. Natsu saw them running away after he helped Ruby and is chasing after them now." Yang explained.

Hearing this did not sit well with the green eyed woman, Natsu Xiao Long and Cardin Winchester had a history of violence against each other that only seemed to have gotten worse after their shared detentions with her.

The two were complete opposites, Cardin believed in human superiority and Faunus suppression while Natsu was a supporter of equality. Cardin thought political power and fear would let him rule all of Remnant while Natsu couldn't seem to care less- though if Ozpin was right about him that was just a ruse. _If Winchester really was almost responsible for Miss Rose's death, there is a good chance Salamander will cause the boy great harm,_ Glynda thought.

Her thoughts, along with anything else the two teams might have said, were cut off by a head splitting scream that resonated with great pain.

"Oh no." Goodwitch whispered, she remembered the sound of that scream from earlier in the year when Cardin Winchester had broken a rib in a sparring match.

As soon as she heard the scream Blake palled, she had heard a scream like that before. Just before her last mission for the White Fang she had witnessed one of the most horrific things that she thought she would ever see. Adam Taurus, her friend and mentor had just handed over a Schnee company executive who had been known in the past to abuse many Faunus under his control. The man hadn't gone so far as to strike or to kill anyone but he had verbally and emotionally attacked many young Faunus when they tried to find some kind of middle ground for the dangerous jobs given to the Faunus workers and the wages they received.

The man was a bastard without a doubt, but he didn't deserve what had been done to him. Their superiors had bound the man in chains and coated the man in a layer of Fire Dust and slowly released the power contained in Nature's Wrath burning his skin and super heating the metal chains until the man's whole body shut down from the pain at which point he had beheaded him.

And Adam… Adam had just watched as the man burned, his expression blank.

 _No…_ Natsu had been the first person she had connected with after leaving the Fang, she couldn't lose him like she had Adam. She had to stop him.

No sooner had the thought entered her mind that Blake was running through the forest in the direction of the tortured screams of Cardin Winchester the others quickly falling behind due to her superior speed. She hated the man, she really did, but if Natsu ended up killing him in his rage he would be thrown in prison faster than Ruby could eat a plate of cookies. She couldn't lose another friend to hated, she just couldn't.

Blake ran for what felt like hours, Cardin's screams of agony unending and ringing in her ears. What could Natsu possibly be doing to him that could cause him so much pain?

Blake finally burst into the clearing where the noise was originating from only to have her way blocked by a solid wall of dark red fire that every one of her senses were screaming at her not to get near.

"Natsu!" She cried, "Natsu, please stop!" she begged, "Don't do this Natsu!" She continued to yell into the fire, unable to see anything through the thick flames despite the odd absence of any form of smoke.

"NATSU!"

Finally, as if in response to her calls the barrier of fire began to thin allowing her to see the scene that it had been hiding. A scene that was straight out of a nightmare.

Russel, Sky, and Dove were huddled together on one side of the enclosed circle shaking and whimpering in fear. A fear that was completely justified given what was happening in the center of the little circle of hell.

There with his armor shattered and his cloths torn to shreds lay the burning form of their leader Cardin Winchester, withering in pain as he continued to scream to the heavens in his unending agony.

And above him stood who Blake could barely recognize as Natsu Xiao Long. "Dear Monty." Blake whispered mortified. Eyes filled with rage, messy red hair, black horns protruding from his skull. It was like looking at a twisted demonized combination of her old friend and Natsu as more fire poured from his outstretched hand adding to the fire already consuming Cardin.

Her last whisper seemed to be heard as Natsu turned his head away from his sick form of amusement to look directly at Blake with his crazed eyes.

"Well, well, well, looks like the little kitty cat wants to play."

* * *

 **At first I wanted for Natsu to use Dragon Force because of his anger at CRDL, but after I thought about it I couldn't think of any better time for E.N.D. to make his first appearance.**

 **This chapter was hard to write for several reasons. One was because I ended the last chapter on such an ambiguous note, I had no idea how to transition from that point to team CRDL's smack-down** **.**

 **Another, and the biggest problem I faced, was the** **portrayal of E.N.D. who is described in cannon as being the most vile demon ever created by Zeref, while Natsu is well, the protagonist, and I don't know about you guys but I can't think of too many anime protagonists that are known to be out right sociopaths... Well Ken Kanaki from Tokyo Ghoul was one in season two I guess. The guy is crazy, awesome but crazy.**

 **Anyway I hope you all enjoyed the chapter, and don't forget to-**

 **READ AND _REVIEW_!**

 **Wingd Knight out.**

 **PS: The poll for the plot of the fan choice story is now closed, the winner was 'Natsu in the DxD Universe' the new poll is now about one of the finer details that will be going into the first chapter of the story please remember to vote.**

 **PPS: For those of you whose choice failed to win, do not despair, when the time comes that I want to make another side story I will be using the plots from this past poll for the bases of the story. The more votes it had, the more likely I am to choose it when the time comes.**


	17. Chapter 16

**Both a short update and one that is very late. Explanation at the bottom.**

* * *

Blake watched in horrified denial as the monster who wore her friend's face stalked towards her. "W-who are you?" Blake stuttered.

"How rude, to think that you would forget the face of your friend so fast. It's only been ten minutes!" The creature exclaimed with mock hurt in its voice, a voice that sounded so much like her friend's but _not_.

"I don't know who or _what_ you are but you are _not_ my friend." Blake told it, trying her best not to sound scared. She wasn't fooling anyone.

The horned demon gave a predatory smile at the cat Faunus' frightened tone, "What a _perfect_ choice of words there little kitten. _What,_ am I." The monster's grin widened, "I am the one you know as Natsu, but not the Natsu you know." It's grin looked positively terrifying at this point, "I am the darkest part of his soul, the Curse bestowed upon him by his own Flesh and Blood. I am the spawn of hate, rage, sorrow, and death. I am the Demon that the Dragon keeps at bay. I, am E.N.D." The monster exclaimed with obvious joy, like it had waited centuries to proclaim its existence.

"Now then kitten," E.N.D. continued, "how about you join me for a bit of fun?" it questioned Blake, "After all" it told her, "what could be more fun than crushing some self-righteous bugs?" the Etherious asked her, gesturing to the cowering forms of Dove, Russel, and Thrush. Cardin was unresponsive, but Blake was able to see the rise and fall of his chest so at least he was still alive.

 _I have to stall him until Ms. Goodwitch and the others get here,_ Blake thought to herself. If she could keep the demon from hurting- or Monty Oum forbid- _killing_ team CRDL until the others were able to make it to the clearing the nine of them should be able to subdue the monster.

"Natsu," she began, only to be cut off.

"E.N.D." The creature interrupted her, "My name is E.N.D.. The one you know as Natsu is not me, nor am I him. He is Anger and Passion. I am Rage and Hatred. He is the son of a dragon king; I am the brother of a demon emperor. You would be wise not to mistake the two of us again." it warned her. It really didn't like people assuming that just because he and the Dragon Slayer shared a body they were the same person, other than their element they had almost nothing in common. Well that and the whole 'kill Zeref at all cost' thing, but he was already dead so that was moot.

"If-if you're not Natsu… what are you? A split personality?" The cat girl questioned.

E.N.D. smirked at the raven haired girl's question, "No, I'm _much_ more than just the result of a fractured psyche." it told her.

Blake waited for the demon to continue, but it just stared at her with crazed, hungry eyes and the same insufferable smirk it kept using, taunting her, silently telling her that it saw her as a mere plaything, if that.

However, before Blake could continue to question the demon, the sound of snapping twigs and crunching leaves broke through the air, accompanied by the calls of her team along with team JNPR and Professor Goodwitch.

The demon frowned, obviously upset at the interruption, "It seems we are out of time little kitten." It told Blake, "If you want to know more you will have to ask Salamander. Until next time." And just like that the horns on top of Natsu's head turned to dust **(Capital D means energy Dust, lower case d means dust dust)** , his hair lightened back to its bright salmon hue and fell flat, the black lines on his arms faded away while the red of his closed eyes brightened from the dried blood color they had taken on and returned to their brighter crimson color.

As soon as the transformation was complete, the now restored Natsu's eyes rolled back into his head and he fell forward landing in Blake's arms, he was conscious but in some form of shock.

 _What the hell,_ Blake thought to herself, _what the hell was that thing? What happened to you, Natsu?_

"Blake! Natsu!" Blake heard Yang call.

"Over here sis!" the boy in her arms called back, bringing himself back to his feet.

As the others made their way into the clearing Natsu gave Blake a quick glance, silently conveying that he would tell her about what she had seen later.

She would hold him to that.

Entering the clearing behind her students, Glynda Goodwitch quickly looked around the area to see just how much damage had been caused during… whatever the hell happened that caused four teenage males to scream like prepubescent little girls.

Spotting three members of team CRDL huddled together on the far side of the clearing, looking at one of her most troublesome students with crippling terror and their leader's prone but breathing form in the middle of the field she didn't know whether to be glad that they were still alive, or to share in their fear thinking about what the fire user had to have done to get such a reaction out the three and to cause the state of the ginger haired teen currently lying face first on the ground.

Curiosity winning over fear, the blond woman turned to face the fire user, "Mr. Xiao Long-"

"Salamander."

"-what happened here?" She asked him, ignoring the interruption.

"I'm guessing someone already told you that they're the reason that Ruby is like that?" He asked in turn, nodding toward his little sister currently sleeping in his twin's arms.

Casting a glance over at the girl herself, Glynda turned right back to… Salamander and nodded her head.

"Well," The secret wizard continued, "As you can guess I was… _upset_ about that. So I tracked them down and politely told them that what they did was wrong and convinced them to never do anything like it again." He explained.

"*Cough*Bullshit*Cough Cough*"

"Shut up Yang, that's what happened."

Sighing Glynda silently agreed with her fellow blonde's analysis, that was bullshit. "Oh? And what about Mr. Winchester's state of consciousness?" She questioned.

Looking over his shoulder at the racist teen, the Salamander shrugged his shoulders uncaringly, "Don't know, maybe after seeing the errors of his ways he had an identity crisis and blacked out from the shock?"

"*Cough*BULLSHIT*Cough Cough*"

"Knock it off Yang, it could happen."

Again, Glynda sighed, "Yes, well while that could have happened I don't suppose you could tell me what else _may_ have happened?" She asked him.

"Well, hypothetically, I could have threatened the jackass, who then possibly could have said something that may have been racist and demeaning that made the situation worse, I then may have, if I had been so inclined, punched him really hard and set him on fire… possibly."

By this point the greened eyed professor was starting to develop a migraine. _Translation: That's exactly what happened… I wonder if I can convince Port to give me some of his brandy when we get back, I have a feeling I'm going to need it._ "I see. Well then Misters Lark, Bronzewing, and Thrush, please carry your leader back to the school and drop him off in the medical wing, and do be careful, with how loud he was there is a good chance that there are several creatures of Grimm heading this way."

The three males, more than willing to take any chance they could to get as far away from the one that defeated their leader in such a brutal fashion quickly collected Cardin's messy but suspiciously unmarred form and hightailed it out of the clearing as fast as they could in the direction of the school, casting fearful looks over their shoulders every step of the way.

"Ms. Xiao Long, you may as well bring your sister in as well. As for the rest of you, just go back to the assignment. Not you Salamander, you and I need to go speak to the Headmaster about what happened here and about how two of my students have ended up needing to go to the infirmary during what should have been an easy field test."

The teen in question turned to face the woman, and nodded his consent, "You're right, after all I am a witness to an attempted murder." He told her, bluntly telling his professor exactly what is was Cardin had done no matter what he or anyone else may later say.

"Yes, that you are."

* * *

 **First off, the reason for the lateness of this chapter. My computer- that is just short of a year old at this point- unexpectedly died on me out of nowhere on the seventh of this month and it took all this time for it to be checked by the computer repair store- who claimed it was beyond saving- and later for a family friend who is going to school to study nuclear power to drop by to visit and offer to fix it himself. It took him ten minutes. F*ck computer repair shops.**

 **Now to address the shortness of this chapter. I had the first half written before the crash but by the time I could work on it again I had forgotten where I was going with it- which by the way is also the reason E.N.D.'s character changed partway through.**

 **Next chapter will include Natsu's talk with Ozpin and Goodwitch about what he did to Cardin and why and may get as far as Natsu's bullshit explanation to Blake about what exactly E.N.D. is.**

 **On another note: THERE IS A FUCKING THIRD DRAGNEEL NOW?! What the Fuck?! First the protagonist is one, then one of the two big bads is one, and now the trump card of the Empire is one as well. What is it with this family and producing insanely strong wizards that are titans above all others in their insanely strong magical armies? What's next, is Acnologia going to be revealed as being their Uncle or something? I mean COME ON!... Actually is this new guy a third brother or is he Zeref's kid or what? I NEED ANSWERS!**

 **Now for some other stuff:**

 **1: Another poll for the fan constructed story/ publicity stunt I'm doing is up, please check it out, the first chapter of it will be up soon.**

 **2: These past few weeks that I couldn't work on my stories lead my ADD addled mind to wonder and I came up with like ten different story ideas that I want to do, so while there may soon be several opening chapters of new stories coming out some time soon don't expect updates that are anywhere near frequent. My priorities for stories stand as such 1)Reborn Dragon 2)Fan construct 3) Dragon of the Hearth and 4) everything else I may later post.**

 **And finally, for those who want to know, here is the current Harem plan for this story please note it could be subject to change.**

 **Pyrrha, Blake, Velvet, and Coco. If you want any other girls to be added there are two things you can do: 1) Give her name and the reason why you think she will be a good addition (just giving a name will not help your case whatsoever) and 2) Wait and hope I decide to add them.**

 **That's all, and please be sure to-**

 **READ AND REVIEW!**

 **Wingd Knight out.**

 **PS: Again only the first part of this chapter was Betad because I wanted to get this out as soon as possible and my beta (who is awesome by the way) is inconsistent with how long it takes for him to get back to me after I send him a chapter to look over... so yeah I pulled a bit of a dick move and just posted this without his input.**

 **I really need to work on that.**


	18. Chapter 17

**Some may notice a genre of this story was changed to 'Drama'- this chapter is why.**

* * *

Natsu silently followed his blond haired professor as she led him to the headmaster's office once more, his eyes planted firmly on her ass. ' _I've been going to his office a lot haven't I?'_ The wizard thought to himself absently, amused at just how accurate such a statement was, this was what? The third time he's had to go to see Ozpin since coming to Beacon? That's more than most students visited the headmaster in their whole time at the academy and he did it in his first semester.

"You are making quite the habit of causing trouble don't you Mr. Xiao Long?" Goodwitch asked her most troublesome student, her eye twitching slightly. ' _Does he think I don't know what he's staring at?'_

"Seriously, why do you keep calling me that? I told you to just call me Natsu or Salamander." The red eyed youth said in way of answering.

"It would be unprofessional for me to call you either of those things." Goodwitch told him, "And why on Remnant do want to be called a lizard anyway?"

"Salamander means fire lizard, its used to designate a dragon as being a fire type." Natsu explained to her, "I'm a fire user whose family is supposedly descended from dragons somehow, I think it fits."

"… Dragons can be something other than fire users?"

The teenager just looked at her like she just asked what two plus two was, "Duh."

Luckily for Glynda she was saved from responding by their arrival to the headmaster's office. "Enter." Ozpin's voice called out. "Ah, Glynda what can I- oh, Mr. Xiao Long, what happened."

"You make it sound like I go around causing problems."

"The last time you were in here you accused my staff of racism."

"They kinda are, I mean name one time they stopped an act of assault on a Faunus."

"Now is not the time for such a discussion." Goodwitch interrupted, "Ozpin, we came here because team CRDL released a swarm of Rapier Wasps to attack teams RWBY, JNPR, and Mr. Xiao Long, one managed to sting Ms. Rose causing a severe allergic reaction nearly resulting in her death."

Ozpin's eyes widened in shock and horror at the news, "If that is the case, where is team CRDL? They must be held accountable."

"This wouldn't have happened in the first place if you had expelled those assholes before. In fact, didn't I say you wouldn't take action until something like this happened?" Natsu asked rhetorically.

"They are currently in the hospital wing while their leader is being looked over." Goodwitch answered Ozpin, pointedly ignoring the teenager.

"I thought you said it was Ms. Rose was the one in need of medical attention, why is Mr. Winchester being looked over?" Ozpin questioned.

Goodwitch coughed into her hand, "It would seem that in the time between the release of the wasps and my learning of the event, Mr. Xiao Long-"

"Natsu."

"-Was able to use his Semblance to heal his sister and brought it upon himself to track down Mr. Winchester and… express his displeasure at his actions." The blond haired professor explained.

The headmaster frowned and turned to face his student, "What did you do?"

"Just scared him a little." Natsu shrugged, "Seriously, once he wakes up he'll be good as new. The school nurse will tell you the same thing later."

"You're telling me that after Mr. Winchester nearly caused the death of your sister all you did was scare him? And that somehow by doing so drove him into a state of unconsciousness?" The silver haired huntsman asked, the skepticism clear in his voice.

Again, the Dragon Slayer only shrugged, "If I beat him like he deserved he would just be healed up by the medical staff and be right back at it again. This way you have no choice but to expel him at the very least, possibly even his whole team and file a police report." Natsu said with a smirk.

Now it was Glynda's turn to frown, "We have yet to find any form of evidence that would suggest such a punishment is necessary-"

"Are you fucking kidding me? The guy let loose a bunch of dangerous creatures that are deadlier than some Grimm with the intent to hurt other students and one of them damn near died! In what possible world does not warrant at the very least him being expelled!" The wizard demanded slamming his hands on the headmaster's desk, his anger causing his magic to lash out and heat the room to near boiling temperatures.

The two senior huntsmen flinched at the sudden rise in temperature, nearly missing the black markings that flashed into existence on their student's arms before vanishing once more. ' _Interesting.'_ Ozpin thought, ' _Those marks appeared when his anger spiked, what are they?'_

"Salamander," the professor cut in before his deputy could reply to the teenager's outburst, "She did not mean that Mr. Winchester would not be punished, just that as of now we see no reason to involve the Valian police department." He tried to placate the angry fire user.

"What part of 'almost died' did you not get?" Natsu asked him, his anger rising along with the temperature. "I may not be the smartest guy around but even I know when someone is almost _murdered_ it's supposed to be reported."

"Man slaughtered." Ozpin told him.

"What?"

"When the death of another is accidental it is called man slaughter, not murder."

"I _know_ that, I meant how is purposely releasing dangerous creatures and setting them up to attack others considered 'accidental'?"

Ozpin sighed, "The part where one of those attacked has a history of assaulting the offender and no neutral parties being present at the time of the incident." He explained, "Neither we nor the police can take your word at face value Salamander. The Winchesters are a highly respected family and they have numerous connections in every level of government in the kingdom, that in tandem with the history you two share will result in the case being dropped at best and you being charged with assault of the child of a high standing family at worst."

"We had the heiress of the Schnee Dust company, the only son of the Arc family, and a world famous celebrity witness the event headmaster. I'd like to see what connections the Winchester's have that can top all three of their words along with my own." The slayer snarled.

"You also have your twin who has an outstanding criminal record for assault and property damage." Goodwitch told him.

"Those charges were dropped when they found out those injured had connections to smuggling rings." Natsu shot back, "If anything Yang being there just gives more credit to Cardin being guilty."

"Salamander." Ozpin said seriously, "It does not matter what witnesses or evidence you have, anything short of a confession or a video of the event will hold. The Winchesters as a whole are good people, but Cardin and his father both are some of the biggest believers of human supremacy in the kingdom and have both synthesizers that will vouch for them being upstanding citizens that can do no wrong, and enough money to blackmail more to give false testimony that will paint both you and your family in a bad light, which in turn will set up Mr. Winchester to be the victim." He explained.

"My father is a high ranking huntsman and one of the best teachers at Signal, my uncle is recognized as one of the best huntsmen alive second only to you on top of stopping over a dozen Grimm invasions of settlements outside the walls single handedly, and Ruby's only public marking is when she stopped a robbery and engaged a wanted criminal." Natsu pointed out, the temperature still rising and his eyes darkening several shades, "How exactly do you paint people like that in a bad light?"

"By pointing out that your father has lost two wives and the damage it most of had on his psyche, that your uncle despite all he has done for Remnant as a whole is also a chronic drinker who has damaged Atlas military property multiple times and openly insults their top general, and by telling the court just how much property damage your sister caused when she engaged those robbers." Ozpin told him tiredly, "I understand that you are upset about this Salamander, but bringing this to the police or even expelling Mr. Winchester will only cause more trouble for everyone. You, your sisters, teams RWBY and JNPR, and Beacon as a whole." The headmaster continued.

By this point the only thing keeping the teachers from getting burned was their Auras, as it was their cloths were starting to smoke from the intense heat that the Dragon Slayer was giving off in his anger. "So you're just going to let him get away with it?" Natsu demanded, "What's stopping him from pulling this kind of crap again? The guy is racist, sexist, and is only passing his classes by forcing others to do his work. How the hell did that jackass even get into this school?" He ranted.

Again Ozpin sighed, "While it is true that Mr. Winchester's scores on the entry exam were not quite at the level we normally would accept, his family has ins on the school board that allowed him to gain entry and guarantee him the role of team leader." Ozpin told him, "Even as the headmaster there isn't much I can do when the board gives a majority order like they did."

The dragon growled lowly, "This isn't over Ozpin, if you won't do anything about Cardin I will." He told the older man, the markings of E.N.D. flashing once more into existence briefly before fading away again.

With his piece said the reborn wizard stormed out of the office and with his departure the unbearable heat finally began to subside.

"You know he's right Ozpin." Glynda told her boss, "If we don't do anything to reign Mr. Winchester in his actions will only continue to escalate. Next time his victims might not be as lucky as Ms. Rose was and could very well suffer permanent injuries or die."

"I know that Glynda." The man told her, "But what I told Salamander was true, the Winchesters may not hold the same international sway as the Schnee or Arcs but they have more than enough power in the kingdom of Vale that any action we take against one of their members will not end well for us or anyone else involved." He explained his actions tiredly.

"Ozpin you are one of the most powerful and influential people in all of Remnant, surly there is something you can do." The blond pleaded.

"I'm afraid not." He admitted, "I may hold the ear of many members of the huntsmen organizations but outside security and military matters my word does not hold as much weight on the council as many would like to believe."

"So there really isn't anything that can be done then?" She asked him.

"We will file this incident into the boy's record for now, if he continues the way he has it will get to the point that he will have enough black spots on record and people willing to speak against him that not even his families influence will be able to make him seem the victim."

"Stupid assholes," Natsu grumbled under his breath as he made his way to the hospital wing to check on his little sister. "How is she?" He asked the moment he opened the door to the medical wing of the school.

Yang was the one who answered him from her place by their sister's bed, their friends taking up various positions around the young reaper as well, "Not as bad as she could be. The nurse said whatever you did to her got rid of most of the venom but it will take a while for her body to flush the rest of it out, until then she's going to be tired, won't be able to keep much food down and may experience some vertigo but she'll wake up soon." She told her twin.

The Salamander sighed in relief "Good, last time this happened she was stuck in bed for a week."

"Actually the nurse wanted us to ask you something when you got here." Pyrrha spoke up.

"Hm? What?"

"What the hell did you do to Cardin?" She asked bluntly. "He's been knocked out since he came in, the nurse said he's completely out of Aura."

"Oh him? I set him on fire with a new kind of flame." He told them.

Yang was shocked, "What? The nurse didn't say anything about him being burned."

"That's the new thing about the flame." He explained, "It makes whoever touches it feel like their being burnt but no physical damage is done. Though from the looks of it the pain makes someone's Aura try to heal the non-existent burns, hence why Cardin's over there unconscious from Aura exhaustion." He told them, all but Blake believing the bull that he gave them.

' _There is no way that's true, whatever that monster was must have something to do with it.'_ Blake thought to herself, ' _He has a lot of explaining to do.'_ She continued her train of thought, giving the pink haired martial artist a glare telling him just that. Judging by his flinch he saw it.

"What did Ozpin say was going to happen to Cardin?" Weiss asked.

Natsu scowled angrily, "Nothing." He told them, "He said that because of his family's money and connections there was nothing any of the staff could do." He growled.

" _WHAT!?"_ Yang screeched, "The bastard almost killed Ruby, and they're just going to let him get away with it!?"

"Trust me I said the same thing." Natsu told his blond haired twin, "Ozpin said that because Cardin and I have a history of violence with each other my word won't hold up in court, take that and your own counts of assault and it makes him look like some hapless victim instead of the racist ass he really is."

Here Weiss cut in with a question of her own, "What about my word? Or Pyrrha's or Jaune's or everyone else's?"

"He said that because of the Winchesters' standing in Vale Blake's, Nora's, and Ren's would mean jack. As for you three, it wouldn't matter. Apparently other than Cardin and his father the rest of the Winchesters are upstanding citizens with close ties to people on every level of Vale's government. The Schnee may hold weight in Vale, Vacuo, and Minstrel but they are a primarily Atlas family, and the Arcs and Pyrrha's fame really only reach into huntsmen circles not political ones… Well the Arcs might but not on the justice system, maybe military."

"Politics is both one of mankind's best creations and most irritating." Ren said calmly, "However this can work for us."

"How?" Yang demanded, her hair burning from her rage.

"The Winchesters may have connections that will protect Cardin, but they must also have an image to defend as well if they want to be able to keep those connections. If we can get Cardin to snap in front of a large group of people and pile on all we have against him at once, whoever is in charge of his house may just decide to cut his losses and throw Cardin to the wolves." Ren told them, "And as long as we don't touch him outside of combat classes we can do whatever we want to him until such a time comes."

Weiss slowly turned to face Nora, "I now understand what you see in him." The heiress told her.

"W-we're not like that!"

* * *

 **Okay here it is, Natsu's conversation with Ozpin. For those who are waiting for actual conflict- chapter after next.**

 **Also it may seem like its been a long time since I updated, but I have posted two new stories in the time between this post and the last one, please check them out they are : 'The Return of the Sinner' (A Chrono Crusade and Highschool DxD crossover) and the fan construct story 'Vanguard of the Dream Dragon' (A Fairy Tail and Highschool DxD crossover). On that note a new poll is up for the fan construct on the subject of bashing, be sure to vote.**

 **Next: The first half of this has been betad already, but since I have things that need to be done over the next few days I'm posting this now and will repost it with the corrections to part 2 after I get word from my beta. I know I do this a lot, but that's what happens when someone with ADD and no patience what so ever writes a story.**

 **Okay that seems like everything- if anyone has any questions let me know.**

 **Remember to REVIEW!  
Wingd Knight out**


	19. Chapter 18

**A short chapter, but an important one.**

* * *

The shattered moon was high in the sky over the majestic towers of Beacon academy. One would expect all the residents of the school to be asleep at such a late hour, but two young huntsmen trainees were still awake. It was time to get some answers.

"Okay Blake, what do you want to know?" Natsu asked the cat Faunus, silently thinking of ways he could bullshit his way out of the situation he found himself in.

"What was that thing you turned into when you went after Cardin?" Blake demanded.

"That was E.N.D., he's basically the darkest parts of my mind and soul brought to the forefront off my being… So basically a different personality." He told her.

"That's not what it said," Blake pointed out, "and that doesn't explain the change in your appearance."

The Dragon Prince sighed, "E.N.D. said that he was more than a second personality because he's an egotistical ass. Literally every part of his mind set and personality come from me, so really he's even less than a second personality. He doesn't hate anything I don't hate, he doesn't know anything I don't know, his only skills are my skills." Natsu told her.

"What about the change in appearance?"

"You can thank my brother for that. The guy makes demons."  
Blake scowled slightly, "Yang never mentioned a second brother. And what do you mean he 'makes demons'?"

"Yang never mentioned one because she doesn't know Zeref even exists- which is something that _will not change._ " Natsu told her with a glare, "And I meant it literally, Zeref's semblance lets him use the corpses of humans, Faunus, and animals to create independent constructs that follow set orders he gives them during their creation."

" _Your brother can bring corpses back to life!?"_ Blake screeched.

"Yes, but not the way you're thinking. The memories, personality and even soul and semblance don't get returned, he implants a part of his power in them which then grows and develops a semblance but no soul."

"He creates _super powered Grimm?!"_

"Pretty much yeah. Though they don't look like Grimm, have insane strength, durability, each have a near endless reserve of power to fuel unique abilities and a high speed healing factor. They are a _bitch_ to kill." Natsu told her.

"Th-that's incredible. A semblance like that could save countless lives if used to augment the huntsmen organizations, why has nobody heard of this?" Blake questioned.

"Because he's batshit crazy, suicidal, and wanted to kill every man, woman, and child in all of Remnant, Faunus and human." He said bluntly.

"Oh." Blake said quietly, "Wait, 'wanted'? He doesn't anymore?" She questioned.

"Last time I saw him I beat him to a bloody pulp and left him for dead." Natsu told her to her shock, "The only reason I didn't kill him outright is because Lady Mavis told me not too. Weather he's alive or not, I don't know or care." Complete lie, he'd burnt his brother's chest cavity to ashes, Mavis hadn't said a thing.

The former terrorist gulped, she never thought Natsu of all people would leave someone for dead, "Wh-who's Mavis?"

"My master. Sorta. I did my job for her, now I'm working for a man named Igneel. Kinda." None of that was a lie- other than the 'man' part. Mavis was the leader of Fairy Tail, even if only unofficially after she became the Fairy Heart, and he was doing a job that his original father gave him- he just wasn't doing it for Igneel, he was doing it for himself.

"Your _what?"_

"You sound surprised." Natsu stated the obvious, "Is it really that shocking that I don't just go around aimlessly all the time?" He asked her, "Yang told you about how I leave a lot right? That was me doing jobs for Master Mavis." ' _And that's another track covered'_.

Blake decided that line of questions could wait for another time, "And who's this Igneel guy?"

"Someone who trusted Zeref, was betrayed by him, and was killed with his help." The Slayer told her, "I took down Zeref, now I'm going after the one Zeref helped to kill Igneel."

"You're planning on killing him. Aren't you." It wasn't a question, but Natsu answered anyway.

"Yes, and unlike with Zeref, no one will come to his aid."

The way the red eyed teen said that did not sit well with the cat Faunus, "A wrong for a wrong never ends well for anyone involved."

"And leaving a dangerous nut bag with murdering tendencies and more raw power than a dozen huntsmen to run loose doesn't ends well for anyone involved or not."

Blake gulped again, "You said that every demon your brother creates is programmed and has no soul. What about you?"

"I wasn't dead when Zeref gave me my curse, so I kept my soul. As for my programming, Zeref was suicidal remember? He programmed me to want to kill him. I've already fulfilled my programming."

"I-I'm sorry."

"Don't be."

No more questions were asked that night.

Oswald Ozpin looked at the medical report in front of him intently, a frown marring his face. On the interactive screen that made up his desk was a copy of the medical reports that the school nurse filed after the incident at Forever Fall, both Ms. Rose's and Mr. Winchester's. They made no sense.

Ms. Rose had almost no Rapier Wasp venom in her blood stream but the side effects she exhibited showed she was injected with several stings worth. An injection of anti-venom would have neutralized the poison but it wouldn't have flushed it out like it seemed to have been, so it seemed that Ms. Xiao Long's story about her brother 'burning' the poison out of her system held more weight than he thought.

' _But to be able to make his fire burn something that precise without harming the surrounding blood or tissue, and to slip through Ms. Rose's Aura without interference…'_

Then there was Winchester's analysis, his Aura was completely drained and a scan of his brain shows an overload of his pain receptors as well but no burn wounds. Aura shielded the body from damage to an extent, meaning that it also prevented them from feeling the full brunt of their opponent's attacks as well. No wound, no pain. To be able to cause so much stress on the boy's brain would require his Aura to be drained, but with his Aura drained he would be burned. _It didn't make sense._ The only way for something like this to happen was if Salamander made Winchester feel pain though his Aura, something that was impossible. Aura was a spiritual thing, not a physical one so it had no connection to the nerves or brain.

' _How did he do it?'_ Ozpin thought to himself, ' _Qrow claims that Salamander's semblance changes properties with his emotions and desires, but this is ridiculous.'_ The headmaster thought to himself. He had promised Qrow to keep an open mind when considering Salamander's abilities but what was he supposed to think when the boy pulled things like _this_ out of his ass? Ancient season magic originating from a hermit and passed down through the souls of young woman seemed the most likely answer… wow that sounded ridiculous.

' _Who are you really, Natsu Xiao Long?'_ Ozpin asked himself, ' _Are you the powerful protector that your family claims, or are you our deadliest enemy?'_

He would not find any answers that night.

Cardin Winchester laid awake in his hospital bed, phantom pains and the jerks they caused his body keeping him from his rest. ' _Damn Xiao Long'_ the teen inwardly raged, ' _How dare he put me here! I always knew the bastard was nothing but a second rate freak!'_ He ranted in his mind, remembering the transformation the other student had undergone before attacking him and his team.

He was the heir of one of the richest and most important families in all of Vale! He was one of the strongest students in Beacon! That no name son of a bitch had no right to even think about even trying to touch him, let alone put him in the hospital!

He would get his revenge, and there was nothing that pink haired pyromaniac could do about it.

But not tonight, tonight he rested.

* * *

 **Yes it is short, but it gives some insight into Ozpin's and Cardin's minds and has the E.N.D. talk with Blake so I think we can all say this one is fairly important.**

 **Starting Monday I go back to school so updates may become a little more erratic, just apologizing ahead of time.**

 **There is a new poll for the fan choice up, please be sure to vote on it. And be sure to check out the actual story while you're at it.**

 **And finally _REVIEW!_**

 **Wingd Knight out.**


	20. Chapter 19

**Yes it has been a long time. School has been a bitch, I got a minor head injury, and two friends of mine moved away. So sorry about keeping you waiting, but I was busy.**

* * *

Natsu followed team RWBY through downtown Vale as store owners and volunteers decorated the streets in preparation for the Vital Festival, an event held to celebrate the end of the last Great War and the peace that came with it. Natsu personally likened it to the Magnolia Harvest Festival back in his first life. It was the kind of thing that Ruby loved but surprisingly it was Weiss that was the most vocal in her love of the event.

"The Vital Festival!" The heiress exclaimed, "Oh this is absolutely wonderful!" She said with uncharacteristic joy.

"I don't think I've ever seen you smile this much Weiss." Ruby pointed out, "It's kind of weirding me out." Her teammates and brother silently agreed.

"How could you not smile?" The albino girl asked the younger teen rhetorically, "A festival dedicated to the cultures of the world! There will be dancing, parades, a tournament! Oh the amount of planning and organization that goes into this event is simply breathtaking!"

Yang sighed and crossed her arms, "You really know how to take a good thing and make it sound boring." The blond huffed.

"Quite you." Weiss snapped back.

"As fun as listening to you two argue is," Natsu cut in, "Why are you four spending your Friday afternoon at the city docks? And why the hell am I even here with you?"

"Uhg, they smell like fish." Ruby complained, ignoring her brother.

"I heard that students visiting from Vacuo will be visiting by ship today." Weiss said in way of answering the pyromancer's question, "And _you_ are here because you tried to set Cardin on fire again so we have to keep an eye on you."

"All I did was give him a scare. It's not like I was going to blow Ren's plan." Natsu defended himself.

" _Anyway."_ Weiss cut back in, "As a representative of Beacon, I feel as though it is my solemn duty to welcome them to this fine kingdom." Weiss explained herself.

"Aren't you from Atlas?" Natsu asked her.

"She wants to spy on them so she'll have the upper hand in the tournament." Blake told the Slayer the heiress's real reason.

"Ah! You can't prove that!" Weiss yelled indigently.

"You just did." Natsu smirked at the albino girl.

"Woah." Ruby said cutting off whatever Weiss might have said in retaliation. Following the reaper's gaze, the other four teens say a store blocked off by yellow police tape with two cops standing guard at the busted windows.

Walking up to the closed store Ruby asked one of the two guards, "What happened here?"

The man looked up from his computer pad, "Robbery." He told her, "Second Dust shop hit this week. This place is turning into a jungle." He said cynically turning back to the building.

"That's terrible." Yang commented.

"Could be worse." Her twin pointed out, "It's not like it was a mass killing right?" He told them, trying to point out the bright side of things.

"But with that much Dust, how long will that last?" Blake refuted playing devil's advocate.

The second guard could be heard talking to his partner, "They left all the money again." He pointed out.

"Huh?" Ruby questioned no one.

The first detective made his confusion known, "Yeah, just doesn't make a lick o' sense. Who needs that much Dust?" He asked rhetorically.

' _Yes, who needs a stockpile of explosives, ammunition, power sources, and weapon enhancers.'_ Natsu silently mocked, ' _it's obviously the candy man!'_ He continued in his head. Seriously, what kind of stupid question was that?

"I dunno, an army?" The second cop asked back. Natsu hoped his questioning tone was fake, he really did.

"You thinking the uh, White Fang?" Cop one asked cop two. ' _No shit Sherlock- does Remnant have Sherlock Holmes?- unless you know of some other large scale anti-government organization running around.'_

Cop two however didn't seem to share the Dragon Slayer's thoughts on the matter, "Ya I'm thinking we don't get paid enough."

Weiss hmphed, "The White Fang. What an awful bunch of degenerates." She said haughtily.

"What's your problem?" Blake questioned the white themed girl, a small undertone of anger in her voice.

Weiss turned to face the golden eyed girl and replied, "My problem? I simply don't care for the criminally insane." She told her.

"Now hold up." Natsu cut in, "The White Fang are far from being the picture of perfect citizens, but that's going a little far Weiss." Natsu told her harshly. "You make it sound like they're hunting down people to torture and kill. They're bad, I'll admit that, but don't make them out to be monster."

"They're just misguided." Blake continued for him.

"Misguided?" Weiss demanded, "They want to wipe humanity off the face of the planet!"

"Again you make it sound like humans didn't try to do the same to them first." Natsu pointed out. "The only reason the White Fang exists is because of the Faunus War forty years ago, a war that was all about humanity wanting to slaughter or imprison every Faunus on the planet." He told her.

Both girls seemed to ignore the Slayer as they glared at each other, "Then they're _very_ misguided." Blake continued to defend her old allies, "Either way, it doesn't explain why they would rob a Dust shop in the middle of downtown Vale."

"Yes it does." Natsu spoke up again this time claiming the girls' attention, "Dust is used in a thousand different things in the modern age, from heating and fuel to weapons and specialized medicine. You can't deny that both the White Fang and the Kingdoms have become more and more militaristic towards each other in the past year. Atlas especially is being pushed to use full military action against the Fang at the urge of General Ironwood and Director Schnee. Obviously the Fang are responding in kind and are preparing for war."

"Natsu has a point." Ruby admitted, "But they never caught that Torchwick guy I fought a few months ago. It could have been him."

"That still doesn't change the fact that the White Fang are a bunch of scum." Weiss said, ignoring how Natsu had pointed out that they were simply responding in kind to her kingdoms actions. In her eyes, Atlas was responding to the threat of the Fang not the other way around.

"Those Faunus only know how to lie, cheat, and steal." She said with conviction.

"Wow you are really racist." Natsu deadpanned, "Some of the greatest heroes of history were Faunus, and its not like humans are any better in the lying and cheating department."

A sailor's shout stopped any farther argument between the teens, "Hey! Stop that Faunus!"

Turning back to the docks, teams RWBY and Natsu saw a blond monkey Faunus wearing worn jeans, an open white button up shirt, and red bracers on his arms running away from two deckhands on a transport ship that had just docked.

Leaping onto the edge of the ship, the blond faced the sailors and told them in a mocking tone, "Thanks for the ride, guys! Hehe." With than the teen jumped off the boat onto the dock, running along the wooden boards at a speed that showed he was most likely a Huntsman trainee.

"You no good stow-away!" One of the sailors yelled after him.

"Hey!" The boy said, hanging by his tail on a street lamp and peeling a banana, "A 'no-good' stow-away would have been caught. I'm a great stow-away." He told them.

' _Guy's got a point."_ Natsu admitted to himself.

One of the two cops from before threw a stone at the Faunus' head, missing only due to the teen moving slightly to dodge it.

"Get down from there this instant." One of the cops ordered the blond. Only to get a banana peel to the face in way of reply.

The Faunus laughed as he flipped up to crouch on top of the lamppost before jumping high into the air and landing in a tight roll several yards behind the two law enforcers, popping back up immediately and beginning to run the cops in pursuit.

As the blond ran past the five teens he gave Blake a quick wink and continued to speed off. Blake didn't look impressed.

Yang decided now was the time to speak up, "Well Weiss, you wanted to see the competition and there it goes."

"Quick! We have to observe him!" The heiress proclaimed, running after the former stow-away her team following her.

For a little while it seemed they were catching up, but upon turning the corner onto another street Weiss ran face first into another pedestrian knocking both of them to the ground. Looking up, Weiss was just in time to see the blond boy and the two cops run out of sight.

"No! He got away!" She cried, still on the ground.

"Uhh, Weiss?" Yang said to get said girl's attention, pointing to the ground in front of the fallen heiress.

Turning to face what the blond brawler was pointing at, Weiss saw that she was practically lying on top of the smiling girl she had just ran over. "Euh!" She cried jumping to her feet.

The ginger haired girl smiled, her bright green eyes unblinking, "Salutations!" She told them with a wave.

"Um… hello." Ruby answered the girl in turn.

Yang was next, "Are you… okay?" She asked.

"I'm wonderful," the girl said, still flat on her back, "Thank you for asking."

The four girls shared a disbelieving look before turning back to the girl while Natsu frowned.

' _What the hell is she?'_ Natsu silently asked himself, ' _She smells like metal, plastic, oil, and some kind of Dust. Even Ruby doesn't smell this strongly of steel after spending three days held up in a weapons forge. And her soul, she definatly has one, but it feels so weird. Not like the warped and damaged one beneath Beacon but almost… artificial, like it was made in a lab.'_ He observed.

"And this is Yang and I's brother Natsu!" Ruby's voice broke Natsu out of his thoughts to see the girl now standing in front of the group having gotten off the ground.

"It's a pleasure to meet you!" The girl said, Natsu believed he heard her say her name was Penny.

"You already said that." Weiss told the ginger haired girl.

Penny seemed to think for a second, "… So I did!" She said with a dopey smile.

"Well, sorry for running into you." Weiss told the girl, the five of them turning to walk away.

"Take care friend!" Ruby told Penny with a wave.

"She was… weird." Yang commented. ' _You don't know the half of it.'_ Natsu thought.

"Now. Where did that Faunus riffraff run off to?" Weiss questioned.

' _He went the other way. And it looks like the guy is running off the Beacon. Should be there in a half hour or so at the pace he's going.'_

Suddenly Penny was in front of them, having rushed around them while the two girls were talking. Unseen by all but Natsu himself.

"What did you call me?" She asked intrigued.

Yang was quick to try and apologize, Weiss looking back and forth between the strange girl and the place she had just been. "Oh, I'm so sorry, I definitely didn't think you heard me."

"No, not you…" Penny told the brawler, "You!" She said walking up to Ruby.

"Me? I-I don't know, I- what I- um, uh"

"You called me 'friend'." The girl exclaimed, "Am I really your friend?" She asked the hooded girl.

Before Ruby could answer she felt her brother's hand on her shoulder and was pulled back from the other girl.

"Look, I don't know who you are or where you came from, but there is such a thing as personal space. And unless you plan on kissing my sister or punching her, I suggest you learn to respect it." He told her menacingly. This girl's soul was not natural, and the only ones Natsu had ever faced with unnatural souls were demons and resurrected enemy generals trying to kill him and his allies.

The girl just smiled and took a step back, "I'm sorry. But did you really call me 'friend' Ruby?"

Behind her, Ruby's team were all making motions that all acquainted to 'say no' to their leader. Said leader didn't understand them.

"Uh. Sure, why not?" Ruby told the girl.

While the rest of team RWBY fell over at their leader's apparent dumb move, Penny was ecstatic. "Sensational!" Penny said loudly, "We can paint out, nails, and try on clothes, and talk about cute boys!" She ranted. Apparently the girl had never had a friend before.

"Is this what it was like when you met me?" Ruby questioned her partner.

"No." The heiress said, "she seems _far_ more coordinated."

"So, what are you doing in Vale?" Yang asked the girl as Natsu began to walk away.

"As fun as this is. I'm gonna go back to the school. Goodwitch is making me help her fix the arena after what I did to it on Thursday." He told the girls with a wave. "Have fun." ' _That girl seriously creeps me out. What the hell is she?'_ Natsu questioned walking away.

Meh, if it was important her would find out sooner or later.

* * *

 **The next chapter will pick up with Natsu walking by RWBY's dorm and watching Blake run off- don't think I'll miss such a perfect chance to push the BlakeXNatsu pairing forward.**

 **I want to say that the next chapter will be out sooner than this one took, but I really can't. I'm taking 2 AP courses and 3 Honers classes. That's 5 of my 7 credits this year being advanced. I will not lie, I have headaches more often than not after homework.**

 **Please remember to review and PLEASE don't waste both of our times on 'When will the next chapter be out?' ones. I don't know. I wish I could say 'On the first- second at the latest.' but I can't.**

 **Again REVIEW,**

 **Wingd Knight out.**

 **PS: Don't forget to fav too.**


	21. Chapter 20

**Shit was going on in life. Nothing else.**

 **Also heads up, I was in a mood after watching sappy and gothic movies so this chapter is kinda... yeah.**

* * *

"Hugh, I hate clean up duty." Natsu complained to himself as he walked back to his dorm after fixing the sparing center in Miss Goodwitch's classroom. "Doesn't Beacon have repair-bots or something?"

"Well maybe we were tired of being pushed around!" Natsu heard someone shout, a someone who revealed themselves to be none other than Blake as the Faunus darted out of her dorm and past the Dragon Slayer, panic rolling off her in waves.

"Blake wait!" Ruby cried out running after her teammate only to be stopped when her brother caught her arm.

"Ruby, what the hell is going on?" Natsu demanded his little sister.

"Blake and Weiss were fighting about how Weiss looks at Faunus a-and it got really out of hand then I-I think Blake just admitted she's a Faunus then she ran off!" The younger teen cried, looking on the verge of tears.

Natsu sighed, "Go back to your dorm Ruby, I'll go talk to Blake."

"But-"

"But nothing. This is why you should try to learn of your friend's and allies' baggage _before_ it becomes an issue. None of you knew Blake was a Faunus- and she didn't want you to- now she's let her heritage slip while having a fight with her racist teammate that neither her partner or her _leader_ tried to stop. She's scared and is feeling cornered, you going after her won't help. _I_ knew she was a Faunus, and _she_ knew that _I_ knew, so with any luck me talking to her won't make her feel as trapped. Go back to the rest of your team Ruby, and make sure that when I bring Blake back this doesn't happen again. Okay?"

Looking down with her eyes still teary, Ruby nodded her head and went back to her dorm.

As soon as he heard the dorm's entrance close behind his sister Natsu let out a deep breath, "Now, where did she go?" He whispered, casting out his sensory net to find his friend.

Usually he would just use his dragon senses to track the girl down, but because of how much time Blake spent in this part of the school her sent was muddled with that of days past and was hard to pinpoint so he was forced to use his brother's sensory magic to find her.

' _I just realized that I've never used Master Mavis' magic outside of training before… well that and my experiment with trying to recreate Larcade's 'Desire' magic… given the results of that I can understand why Gramps told us never to practice our magic drunk, but it all worked out in the end right? Right… There she is!'_ Natsu thought to himself before taking off in the direction he had sensed the amber eyed Faunus.

She had, fortunately, not left the school choosing instead to stand in front of the statue of founders her mind in turmoil. "Got to say, never did like the bow." Natsu called out to her as he walked out of the shadows to stand by her side.

"It was necessary." Blake said dully, her voice cocooned in sadness.

"It was a coward's way out." The wizard told her bluntly causing the Faunus' head to snap his way her eyes wide with shock and hurt. "You cannot hide what you are Blake, especially from your friends. I warned you it would only cause trouble in the end."

Now she was angry, "Well what about you?! You never told Yang, Ruby, or even your Father about Zeref! Or about what he did to you! And I doubt anyone knows about your master either!" She yelled at him.

With a sigh the Dragon Slayer met her gaze, "Zeref may be my brother, but he is not my father's son, and what Zeref did to me isn't something that should be shared, though I have long since overcome my inner demons. Both literal and figurative. You however have not and by running away from them, by hiding them away from those who you should be trusting with your very life, you are giving them power. Being a Faunus is not something to be ashamed of Blake, it in fact makes you physically superior to most humans. You should look at your bloodline with pride, not scorn. So why don't you?"

"Because of what I did!" She yelled, her head now bowed in self-hatred, "I was a part of the White Fang almost my entire life, I took part in every rally, boycott, gathering, everything! When our old leader stepped down and a new one took its place things didn't change right away, all of us could see what was happening, what the Fang was being turned into." By now the golden eyed girl was openly crying "He turned us into an army, a group of terrorist scum that proved everything anti-Faunus campaigns had preached in the past. And the worst part? I _stayed_. I followed my orders like a good little _bitch_ and did everything I was asked. I _killed_ people Natsu, and I didn't even _care!_ " She sobbed, "How can I tell my team what I am? What I did? You're a literal demon of rage and fire, one who's very soul revolves around being able to harness your hate and anger into a weapon, someone who mortally wounded his brother and left him for dead, and yet the only monster here is _me._ " She cried dropping to her knees, "How do you do it? How do you live with yourself? How do _I_ live with myself after everything I've done?" She asked him- no begged him.

For a moment the dragon slayer said nothing and simply gazed sadly at the broken girl before him before with a sigh he began to speak, "I once met a man named Jellal Fernandes, when he was young his home was destroyed and he turned into a slave. For years he was tortured both mentally and physically before one day, he snapped. He ended up taking control of the compound he was a slave in and lead many raids on settlements outside the kingdoms' walls. Years later we met when he tried to kill a friend of mine named Erza Scarlet, and the two of us ended up fighting. By the time we finished the whole compound had been destroyed and he was left half buried under a pile of rocks." Complete and under bullshit, but close enough to the truth to get the point across. "To be honest I had thought I killed him that day, but then he came back with no memory of who he was or what had happened. It took me using my flames of memory on him just so he could see the highlights of his life until that point." Here Natsu turned back to Blake, looking her dead in the eyes, "I ended up leaving him with nothing more than memories of pain and death, yet he didn't regress into the monster he was before. Instead he cried. He cried for the innocent blood he had spilled, for the ideals he had betrayed, for his own tainted soul." He told her, "I don't know how many or what kind of people you killed in the past Blake, but trust me when I say Jellal did worse. For months he did nothing but sit in his new prison cell and cry. Then one day, he stopped. He broke out of his cell and disappeared for nearly a year before I heard of him again." This was also bullshit, Jellal never regained his memories and disappeared for way more than a year. "He had created a group of people who had wronged others in the past and, like him, sought redemption. They called themselves 'Crime Huntsman' and took down several gangs and bandit groups that went around the Grimmlands. He did this for nine months before he pledged his groups service to help me kill Zeref. He knew it would be his last mission, but he still agreed and lead his group against one of my brother's honor guard, a man named August. They were defeated within minutes without even scratching him, every one of them died by his hand."

"Does this story have a point?" Blake whispered, her head bowed once more.

"Every one of Crime Huntsman were among the worst Remnant has to offer, both Faunus and Human, yet they died heroes and without fear of judgment." Natsu told her, "They committed the most heinous of acts in life without care, acts that make murder seem tame in comparison, but like you they grew to feel regret for what they had done. They devoted the rest of their lives to protecting the very people they had wronged in the past and died in a war that few ever knew of, and even fewer survived." He continued, "They did everything they could to redeem themselves and in the end they died heroes. If people like them could do that, I have no doubt you can too." He said as he kneeled beside her, gently grabbing her face to make her look at him, "When you left the White Fang you didn't vanish from the world, you didn't seek some hole to spend the rest of your days in peace in. You came here, to Beacon, to become a huntress, someone that devotes their life to the protection of others. You asked me how you can live with yourself after everything you've done, well the best thing you can do is exactly what you're doing now, your seeking redemption Blake, and I have no doubt you will find it." He told her, bringing her head to his chest as she broke down again.

For almost an hour the two sat like that, holding each other as Blake cried her eyes dry. "Come on," Natsu said helping her to her feet, "I'll call my sisters to let them know you're alright, but I think you need some time off. I'll rent us some rooms down in Vale for the night, and tomorrow we can start getting you to come to terms with who you are."

Throughout all this, neither noticed the blond monkey Faunus in a nearby tree, watching the seen before him in sadness. He knew what it was like to have baggage from your past.

Maybe he should meet up with the two of them sometime the next day, offer the girl the ear of a fellow Faunus to unload on. After all, sometimes you need to talk to someone with a similar past to really move on.

* * *

 **Yes it is shorter than it should be, but I wrote this at like 2300 and just wanted to get something out.**

 **In this chapter Blake had a breakdown after revealing some of her (NOT CANNON) past, Natsu delivered a story that he mixed with just enough BS that it could happen on Remnant, team RW(B)Y is in a hole, and Sun Wukong is set up to be given a tragic reason for leaving Vacuo. See how shit goes down next time on 'Reborn Dragon'.**

 **Now there is a poll up on what I should focus on, the top two will have semi regular updates while the others will not. So go cast your votes.**

 **REMEMBER TO REVIEW!  
Wingd Knight out.**


	22. Chapter 22

**Right, I really dislike some of the past work I did on this story and I don't even know where the hell I was going so I'm rewriting it... so ah, please be sure to go and follow the rewrite and maybe we'll get it up to the top of the favorites in this category like this one by the time I catch it up to where I was in this one.**


	23. If you be so kind

**Right, first things first I want to say thank you to everyone who made this story the #1 most loved story in this section for the entire time I worked on it and for quite some time after it. However, some time ago I was very busy for a long time, and improved my writting a great deal thanks to having to write several papers and short stories along with re-watching Avatar the Last Airbender (the cartoon), and Troy (the movie with Orlando Bloom) so when I finally came back to this site and saw my most loved story 'Reborn Dragon' I felt both pride that at the time it was still #1, and disgust at the pacing, characterization, and writing style of the story as a whole. As such, as I'm sure many of you know, I decided to rewrite the story as 'Reborn Dragon Rebirth' (Yes I do suck at titles, how did you know?). It has done very well all things considered, but it as of now has only 273 favorites and less than 140 reviews while the current #1 is 'Misplaced' by the talented Maximillian Havisham with 1,029 favs, 1,089 follows, and 1,217 reviews and old and trusty 'Reborn Dragon' has a nice 887 favs and 1,003 follows and 506 reviews** **. What I'm asking is that all of you amazing people who supported me by following, favoring, and reviewing this story go check it out and do the same there. Mostly to help my fragile ego by getting this back up in the top three at least, and maybe even getting us back as the #1.**

 **I also have some other stories if you really like me.**

 **So please, if you could, extend the blessings you have given this story to my rewrite. And for those who like the pacing and the OOCness of this draft, I am considering continuing this with a title change to 'Reborn Dragon: Error', if you want that be sure to tell me, but first please help support Rebirth- for the sake of my self-esteem and to push me forward to continue writing.**

 **Thank you all for your continued support.**

 **Wingd Knight out.**


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